


Wake Up, Baby Dreamer

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Soulmate Dreams [11]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Grand Prix Finals of Tears, M/M, Major Character Injury, Not Life Threateningly Sick, Pregnancy, Sick baby, Soulmate AU, Surrogate Pregnancy, be warned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2019-07-05 13:08:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 42
Words: 60,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15864264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: The long-hyped Viktuuri Baby is almost here.  University is almost over.  Viktor and Yuuri are on top of the world this season, and plan to stay there.Yuri's staying where he is, too, only he's frustrated with it.  Being king of the world in Juniors is not the same as being king of the world in seniors.  Yuri's being held back by his age, and he's so ready to be done with it.





	1. Chapter 1

“Yuuri!”

Yuuri rubbed his eyes blearily and squinted at the clock beside the bed. “Vitya, it is four in the morning. Yakov told us to take the day off because of the study sessions. Why are you waking me up?”

“I got the music for my free skate! Listen to this!” Viktor pressed a button on his phone, and haunting string music started playing.

The song’s lyrics were in Italian. “Did you need me to translate or something? I do that better when I’m not still half-asleep although I guess this would be good practice for the actual exams…”

“No, no, just listen, I told Sara what I wanted and she wrote the lyrics, so I know what it’s saying,” Viktor promised.

Yuuri listened. “What’s your theme? Loneliness? It would be a huge surprise…”

“Something like that!” Viktor lit up in a huge smile. “This song’s about the loneliness and the search for someone to fix that problem. My short program’s going to be about losing the people closest to you.”

“So…”

“So I’m going to be telling everyone the theme is loneliness, but the real theme is parenthood. It’s kind of been on my mind a lot lately. The short program is about losing my parents so young, and the free skate’s about finding the right person to raise a family with. Not something I ever seriously had to worry about, since I have you, but if soulmates weren’t real…”

“I’d probably still be working on trying to reach you,” Yuuri finished. “What’s your exhibition?”

“If I can get it past Yakov, Britney Spears. I tried once when I was in novices, but he wouldn’t let me.” Viktor ruffled Yuuri’s hair. “What do you think, will he let me?”

“It’s an exhibition and it’s not an Olympic year, I don’t think Yakov will care.” Yuuri yawned. “Why are you even awake anyway?”

“I don’t know! I just am.” Viktor put his phone away and stretched out beside Yuuri, cuddling in. “Go back to sleep, love.”

Yuuri tried, but sleep wasn’t coming. Viktor tried to help, and then he decided to stop helping and start seducing. Yuuri was happy to let him – if he wasn’t sleeping, he might as well enjoy himself, right?

 

Yuuri had very little trouble coming up with his program ideas. All he had to do was open a book and try to prepare for his final exams or work on his senior project. Then all he could think about was skating. The look on Yakov’s face when Yuuri said he wanted to do a ninja short program had been hilarious, and it got even better when Viktor came over to investigate and found out the reason for it. It had been a while since Yakov had kicked Yuuri off the ice for anything but him trying to overwork himself, but Yuuri got kicked out along with Viktor after the flying tackle that nearly took out Mila too.

His free skate would be to music from Star Trek, specifically music associated with the Klingons. He blamed Phichit. After he and Seung Gil discovered they were soulmates, they spent two weeks hanging out. When not asleep or otherwise occupied, Seung Gil made Phichit bingewatch Star Trek, and Phichit had passed the hobby along to Yuuri. His exhibition skate then played with the Star Trek connection, and he was skating to “Magic Carpet Ride”.

Yuuri was prepared for the skating season, which wouldn’t start until August or September. He was nowhere near prepared for his exams, and those were coming in a month. Yakov took it easy on him as far as training time, giving Yuuri several hours a day to study, but Viktor insisted on taking regular breaks, too. “You know you can’t study effectively if you don’t give your brain a rest. Your brain is lying to you when it says that you’re wasting time, playing Assassin’s Creed with me or going for a picnic or out to a club.”

“I know that. I keep trying to tell myself that, but…”

“But if your brain lies to you how can you believe you?” Viktor guessed. Yuuri nodded, and Viktor winked at him. “That’s why I’m telling you! You can trust me!”

“But you have an ulterior motive. You want me to come play.”

“I also understand that when you’re doing something difficult, you have to work at it. I want you to be at your best. If that means sacrificing some of our playtime, then I do that, no problem. If that means reminding you to take a break and let your brain process, well, I’m good at that!”

 

Yuri was not looking forward to this season. He’d probably win a lot. No worries there. He’d won a lot last year and even with Klaus coming up, Yuri expected to continue winning this year. It was going to be like his last year in novices, treading water and looking ahead. At least this year, Yakov was letting him have some fun with his program, since it was a treading water season. Next year was his senior debut and he’d have to take that seriously, and then it was going to be an Olympics year. If he was going to have fun, now was the time to do it.

Superheroes were still fun, and Yuri was going to skate his short program to the theme from Superman, and then his free skate to a medley of songs from Marvel movies. His exhibition would then be music from ThunderCats – a suggestion from Leo.

At least things with Lev should be quiet, too. Until September, when Romana was due. Then there would be nonsense about Yuri not giving a damn about his flesh and blood sibling, while if Viktor and Yuuri kept their word, he’d be seeing their kid pretty quickly. At least, if his scheduling allowed. Yakov had promised that he could go if he wasn’t in a Junior Grand Prix event when they left, and he wouldn’t schedule anything at other times. He even said he’d talk to the officials and ask for Yuri to be entered early. No guarantees, but they were usually willing to work with athletes.

Yuri had tried to get Yakov to let him learn a quad from Viktor, but Yakov refused. Even when Yuri promised he wouldn’t use it in competition this year, Yakov said no. With Mila working on a triple axel, Yuri was the only one without a major project this offseason, and he was bored. Yuri was considering working on a quad on his own. He’d paid attention when Yuuri was learning them, and any time Mila asked a question about them, Yuri listened. He thought he could do it – but going against Yakov like that just might be enough for Yakov to kick him out, old family friend or not.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri gets some news from Italy, and Viktor takes a trip down memory lane with Yuuri.
> 
> Timeline: May 2015

May was a boring month. Mila was gone to Italy to spend most of the month with Sara, Michele, and Emil. Georgi had gone off with Anya to visit their families. Viktor and Yuuri were both lost to books, coffee, and the occasional 16-hour power nap because they’d been forgetting regular sleep. How Yakov hadn’t killed them yet, Yuri didn’t understand. He wasn’t planning on going anywhere until June.

Then his phone rang. He stared at the number – unfamiliar, but an Italian code. If he were lucky, Mila had accidentally grabbed Sara’s phone; if not, this was his… stepmother? Did she still count as that if he’d disowned Lev in every way but legal? Now that he thought about it, what would it take to disown Lev in the legal sense? If it were worth looking into, surely Yakov or his mama would have by now, but maybe they had looked into it and decided it wasn’t worth it.

Might as well answer. If the other shoe were dropping with Lev’s seemingly new leaf, he wanted to know. “What?”

“Hello, Yuri.” Romana. Damn. “I asked Lev what your skating schedule might look like for this fall, but he didn’t know. He said you probably don’t know yet. Do you?”

“Nope. The Junior Grand Prix doesn’t announce until early June, usually, and anything else I might want to enter gets scheduled around Grand Prix stuff.” Even if he did know, why the hell would he tell Romana? Lev had never had a problem with figuring it out before. If he wanted to show, he could stalk the Yuri’s Angels’ website like everyone else.

“Oh.” Romana’s disappointment sounded genuine. “Well, if you have some time in October, I’d love to have you come out and meet your brother.”

“Brother? Are you sure about that?”

“As sure as we can be at this point, it was pretty clear on the sonogram,” Romana said. “He seemed very proud to show it off, too.”

“Huh.” Not that it mattered at this point, but it might be nice to have a brother once he got old enough to where it mattered. He wasn’t going to be much use to Natasha or Katya when it came to puberty shit, but a brother, he’d get. Of course, he had Nika… “Baby’s coming in October?”

“We’re expecting either end of September or early October. Please don’t take this personally, but I’d rather you not be there for the birth, but I do want you to meet your brother soon after.”

“No offense taken.” Yuri had watched a couple videos thanks to his tutor deciding it was time for some sex ed, and birth looked _gross_. If it were his kid, he could see where it would be worth being there, but for someone else’s kid he hadn’t even decided for sure to give a chance to be family? _No_. He didn’t want to promise to be there, but the thought of having a little brother made him at least decide to consider it. “I’ll see what happens with my schedule, I guess.”

 

Mila and Georgi got back around the end of May, and Viktor and Yuuri crawled out of their study hole for a few days. Exams were done; all that was left was presenting and defending their senior projects. Yuuri breathed a little easier when he saw his marks on his exams – he wasn’t top in his class, by any means, but he’d passed everything quite respectably. Viktor had done well, too, but it didn’t matter as much to him.

Since all that was left was the project, and Yuuri’s was done if he could just bring himself not to go over it five million times “just in case” and Viktor’s was close, Viktor instituted a rule. They spent one hour per day on their projects, and the rest of the day skating, hanging out with Yuri or Mila or their friends online, or getting something ready for the baby.

One day, Yuuri closed his laptop ten minutes early, because Viktor had wandered into their room fighting back tears. “What’s wrong?”

Viktor held out a key. “Yakov gave me this when I told him we were starting to get things ready for the baby. It’s the key to a storage room my parents had. It’s where they stored my and Sasha’s baby things, so that Sasha and I could give them to our children if we wanted to.”

“Oh. Oh, wow.” Yuuri got to his feet and hugged Viktor. “Do you want to go look at it? Should you call Sasha?”

“I can’t call… well, I _can_ call Sasha, but she can’t come up, Europeans is too close. I don’t think she’ll mind us going in and looking at it without her, since we’re the ones with a baby coming soon enough that we’re thinking about it, and I can take pictures to send her of anything we think we might want.” Viktor sat down beside Yuuri. “You’ll go with me?”

“Of course. Right now, or do you want some time to prepare?” It would be easier with Hiroko and Toshiya, in some ways. For one thing, they’d already gone through it twice, once with Yuuko’s triplets and once with Jiahao. For another, Hiroko and Toshiya were still alive to see their grandchild, which meant that the things didn’t matter all that much.

“Let’s go now,” Viktor decided. “No sense in putting it off, is there? I don’t think I’m going to be any less emotional in the future.”

 

Everything was dusty, naturally, and a lot of it was in boxes. Viktor went straight to a rocking unicorn. “I remember this! When it was mine, it was a normal horse, but when Papa made me give it to Sasha because I was too old for it, he painted it white and carved the horn for it. I threw a huge fit. Not because he was making me give it to Sasha – I was too big to fit comfortably by then, and Sasha took after Mama and always was tiny – but because he could have done that any time and I could have had a unicorn to ride, too.”

Yuuri laughed softly. “That sounds like you. At least it wasn’t a dragon?”

“No, but I bet one of these boxes has Drake in it! I’d forgotten about Drake!” Viktor started looking through boxes, reading labels on them. “Drake was a giant stuffed red dragon I slept with every night until I started traveling overnight for competitions. I didn’t want to take him with me, because I would lose him, and as I spent more time away from home, I just kind of forgot to get him when I went to bed here. When I moved in with Yakov, I didn’t bother to take him.”

“How much of this are we going to go through today? I figure we can take a few of the boxes back home, go through them a little at a time?”

Viktor looked up from the box he was studying. “That makes sense. Organize the boxes today? Like all the ones with clothes go together, all the ones with toys together, get all the furniture and big stuff together? I don’t think we should use the car seats, the technology’s changed so much in the past twenty-five years, but do cribs and stuff change?”

“I don’t know.” Yuuri whipped out his phone to text Mari. While waiting on her response, he helped Viktor organize boxes. Some of them were set well aside – no matter how much a prodigy their baby was, neither Yuuri or Viktor could imagine them needing books before a year old. “Mari says that the crib might not be safe, we need to check it out. Aside from the obvious of making sure nothing’s broken and there aren’t missing screws or whatever, we need to test the slats with a soda can?”

“Why a soda can?”

“If the soda can fits through the slats, they’re too far apart.”

Viktor nodded. “Okay, then! What do we want to take home to work through first?”

“Stuffed animals. I want to meet Drake. Most of them will probably go right back in the box, or we could auction off for charity if Sasha doesn’t want them either, since we tend to go through those, but Drake sounds special.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a reminder, there is a [character guide](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u2E6SLBFZ7AqU7ASGQnxOuD9MunnubROkH-WLVs_BnU/edit#gid=0) for the series. It is up to date, including birth dates for both Romana and Viktuuri's babies, along with Romana's son's name. The Viktuuri baby has been named, but I'm withholding that because spoilers. (If someone guesses right in the comments, I will confirm.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looking ahead at the skating season. Some good news, some bad.
> 
> Timeline: early June 2015

The Challenger Series dates being announced brought some disappointment for Viktor and Yuuri. They’d hoped to participate this year, but it was starting late enough that once again, they would be a bit busy. There was the Grand Prix, of course, and then the first event was the week before their baby was due. Mari tried to talk them into signing up for one of the early October ones – “Baby should be here by then, I don’t need you hovering” – but Viktor refused, and Yuuri was perfectly happy to follow his lead. “It’s all right, Mari. We didn’t participate last year, either. It just means four to six spots for skaters who wouldn’t have had a chance if we wanted them.”

Yakov had already approved a tentative plan for them to go out to Hasetsu in mid-September and train with Yuuko and Minami at least until Skate America, and to take Yuri with them if certain conditions were met. Yuri couldn’t go until after his last Junior Grand Prix qualifier, and Lilia had to go with them. “I know Minako could easily handle the ballet, and I don’t think Lilia will interfere unless invited, but I want her there to make sure the three of you are training like you’re supposed to be, and she wants to be there.”

“Of course she’s welcome,” Yuuri said. “I know Minako would love to see her.”

When the Grand Prix assignments came out, Yakov called them all together. “Yuri. You’re done first week of September. You’re in Slovakia in August and America that week. First and third events. Promise to behave, and you can go with Viktor and Yuuri.”

“I’ll behave. Anyone I’m up against standing out?”

“Klaus Mitter’s going to be in America. He couldn’t touch you in novices and I don’t expect that to change, but he’ll likely be right on your heels. Slovakia, there’s a few who might do something, but no one I think you’d need to pay attention to or would want to aside from your friend Richard. Cécile LeRoy is going to be in America, too, not that you’re competing against her but I know she’s a friend.”

“Nice. No Minami?”

“No Minami.” Yakov cleared his throat. “Georgi, you’ve got Skate America. Christophe and Sachio will probably be the others on the podium, but Leo or Emil could pull an upset there. Skate Canada, Viktor, that’s you. Rykov, Michele, and JJ will be your big competition, but don’t overlook Otabek or Seung Gil. Yuuri, I don’t want to see you there, because you’re in the Cup of China. That gives you both a month with your baby before you have to be anywhere. Depending on what I see out of you two in Canada and China, we can figure out the rest of the fall from there. Yuuri, you’re up against Bin and Jude, with a couple good candidates for spoilers in Su and Sachio.”

“We’ll be ready,” Yuuri promised. “Viktor, if you want to go back to Hasetsu instead of coming to China…”

“No, I’ll be there,” Viktor said. “Unless something terrible happens in Canada, at least. If I do so poorly that Yakov makes me come back here to train!”

“Mila, you’re in China as well,” Yakov continued. “Skye and Yuuko both there, along with Raisa and Ling. You’re going to need to do your absolute best if you want a medal.”

“I will! It’s time for Russia to break into that top tier of skaters, and I’ll do it,” Mila said. “Yuuri, I know she’s like your sister, but I’m going to kick Yuuko’s ass.”

“Can’t wait to see it.”

Yakov glared, and they quieted down. “We’re all off from France. Then Russia, head to head with Viktor and Georgi, with Jude, Emil, and Su being the ones to watch for bronze. Mila, you’re there too. Iona, Cathy, and Raisa are the most likely to hit the podium with you, but it should be easier than China.”

“And Yuuri doesn’t get to go again, because that means he’s in the NHK,” Viktor groaned. “Stupid seeding!”

“We knew it was likely to work out like this since we asked not to be put in Skate America,” Yuuri reminded him. “At least it’s me missing you instead of the other way around, you’re less prone to the mental issues I get.”

“True!” Viktor hugged Yuuri.

“Yuuri, NHK, where you and Bin are the clear favorites. Good competition for bronze, with Leo, Phichit, Rykov, Seung Gil, and Togai, but you’re in good shape. Georgi, Mila, we’d already talked about the Challenger Series, Nebelhorn and Finlandia?”

“Am I doing anything else this fall?” Yuri asked.

“I thought you might like to go to the NRW. It’s the same time as the NHK, so Lilia would have to take you, but you won’t have competed since the first week of September so it might be a nice tune-up before Finals. Other than that, I didn’t see anything that would be worth missing out on babies for or against something else I was planning on going to.”

“Okay.”

“Yuuri, since you’re not doing the Challenger Series, do you want to compete in the Asian Open? It’s early, beginning of August, but if you want to do it you can.”

Yuuri shook his head. “I don’t think I could be ready and take a vacation once I’m done with school, and I think Viktor and I deserve the vacation. Isn’t it in Bangkok this year? I might want to go, I know Phichit will be competing if it’s in Bangkok.”

“Your choice. I know you and Viktor are headed out to Hasetsu right after graduation, but I want you here for as much of July as possible. Taking some time in August is fine if you want to go to Bangkok, but you’re going to be distracted in the month before your first competitions, so plan your time accordingly.” Yuuri and Viktor both nodded. “Yuri, they’re not doing the International Challenge Cup this year, but you’ll probably be invited to the Youth Olympics. And then instead of the World Team Trophy, they’re doing a Team Challenge Cup, with Team Europe, Team Asia, and Team North America. Viktor, Yuuri, Mila, I would imagine you’ll be favorites to be asked, and Georgi, it’ll depend on what kind of year you have and if they want to spread it out so it’s not too Russian-dominated.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of school and baby planning. Wheeee!
> 
> Timeline: mid-June 2015

Viktor was scheduled for his project defense first. He had it finished in plenty of time, and although Yuuri wasn’t allowed in the room with him, he went and waited just outside. Viktor came flying out and gave him a big hug. “That was so much easier than I’d expected it to be! You’re even more prepared than I was, you’ll do great, I know it!”

There were a few days before Yuuri was scheduled to go, which he and Viktor filled with working through the baby things. The crib had tested out fine, so they’d set it up in the empty bedroom with Drake guarding it in preparation for the baby. They’d picked out two other stuffed animals to keep out for the baby: a bear and a stuffed kitty that bore a striking resemblance to Potya. Yuri approved. “Speaking of Potya. Romana told me that cats sometimes kill babies, suck their breath or something. Are you gonna make me leave Potya with Yakov and Lilia when I’m over here?”

“That’s just an old wives’ tale,” Yuuri said. “If we do start running into problems with Potya and the baby we’ll figure it out then, but Potya’s part of this family. Just ask the dogs.”

Yuri’s eyeroll didn’t quite hide the relief. “Mama said to ask you if you two were planning on having a baby shower.”

Viktor shook his head. “I don’t think we need to. We’ll have some kind of party celebrating the baby’s arrival, probably, but we don’t need help with preparing for the baby so we’re not going to have anything where presents would be expected.”

Yuri snorted. “You know that’s not gonna stop people from buying your baby presents, right?”

“Never stopped Vitya,” Yuuri said. “If people want to buy them presents, that’s their choice.”

 

Opening a box of clothes brought up another important conversation. Right on top was a carefully-wrapped elaborate white gown. Yuuri stared at it. “What on earth. Who’d put a baby in this?”

“Lots of Russians!” Viktor took the gown with a smile. “This is a baptism gown. I’m not sure if it’s mine or Sasha’s, but it doesn’t really matter. When we’re baptized, they dress us in white to symbolize the washing away of the sin we’re born with.”

“Oh.” Yuuri stared at the gown. “Are you going to want to have our baby baptized?”

Viktor shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest. You’re not Orthodox, I don’t really pay that much attention, I’m sure Misha and Emiliya would agree to be godparents if we decide to do it. If they decide to stay in Russia, it might help them a little since the government's getting so fond of the religion, but they can always get baptized later if they choose to.”

“What will Yakov and Lilia think if we don’t?”

Viktor chuckled. “Considering Yakov is Jewish, I really don’t think he’ll mind if we decide to put off baptism until our kid chooses it. I don’t know how much Sasha cares about religion, but I don’t think she’ll mind if we put off baptism.” He rolled his eyes. “The media’s going to be horrible either way, of course.”

“The media can go screw themselves. They’re not raising our kid, we are. Yakov and Lilia and Sasha’s opinions matter.” Yuuri looked at the dress again. "In Japan, we have a baby naming ceremony, when the baby is seven days old. I'd like to do that. It's not a big thing, probably Mom and Dad and Minako would be the only ones besides us, the baby, and Mari unless she wants to take off for a nap. Yuri if he's there and wants to come."

"Not Yuuko or her family?"

"No, like I said, it's meant to be small, a time for family bonding."

"Okay! Sounds great, then!"

 

The night before his project defense, Yuuri couldn’t sleep at all. Viktor cuddled up to him. “What are we going to do about names?”

Yuuri blinked, tilting his head at Viktor. “Huh? I thought we’d decided that a long time ago. Use your name as the patronymic, Katsuki-Nikiforov or Nikiforova like us. We’ve got the list of potential names that we’re going to run by Mari and Mom and Dad when we get to Hasetsu. What else do we need to decide?”

“What they’re going to call people, of course! Which ties into what language we’re going to use… Russian, Japanese, both, English…? All of them have advantages.”

Yuuri rolled his eyes with a smile. “You’re trying to help me out here. My project was on language acquisition.”

Viktor winked with a huge grin. “Well, yes, but it really is something we should have settled before we go to Hasetsu so we can tell your family what language we want them to hear! None of your family speak Russian, so I’m going to when I’m there, but when we come back here they’ll get Russian a lot of places. Will it confuse the baby if I switch to English?”

“Maybe a little, but they’ll adapt. Right now, Mom and Dad are talking to the baby in Japanese, while Mari’s talking to them in Mandarin. She’s planning to switch to English when the baby’s born, unless we tell her something different. I’m probably going to speak Japanese here.”

“Why Mandarin?”

“Practice, mostly. She’s not expecting us to raise our child speaking Mandarin, but she’s kind of hoping that if they want to learn later this will make it easier. Right now, the important thing is that they’re hearing more than one language. As much as a baby can hear anything, from inside, anyway. So you speak Russian in Hasetsu, English in Saint Petersburg. I speak English in Hasetsu, Japanese in Saint Petersburg. Then the community language is the third.”

“And that won’t confuse them?”

Yuuri smiled. “Kids are smart. They tend to figure stuff out. The key is for us to be consistent.”

“What do we talk to each other in? Our languages, or stick with English?”

“Stick with English, since it’s not the community language either place." Yuuri leaned his head against Viktor's. "As far as what they call us, it doesn’t matter to me whether I’m tousan or dad, and if either of us is going to be papa, that should probably be you. My family, they’ll use Japanese words for, probably. Mari might use English, since she’s planning on speaking English to the kid.”

“What about Sasha? Should we ask her to speak Russian or English? I figure what they call her depends on what language she speaks to them.”

“Probably Russian, so many of our friends are going to be speaking English. You know, if we wanted to, you could probably speak French with our kids, and have them learn English from Yuri or it being how we talk to each other.”

Viktor frowned. “That’s not too much? Four languages is a lot.”

“It might be. I didn’t really do much beyond trilingual, but we can certainly look into it. Are you comfortable enough in French to speak it exclusively?”

“Good point. If we do that, I should probably start talking to Chris in French – we use French in texts and such, but I don’t speak it aloud much. Then Chris becomes good reinforcement for learning, too!”

“Yeah. Something to sleep on after I go defend my project.”

“You will do great, Yuuri.” Viktor leaned forward and kissed Yuuri’s nose. “Then we go to Hasetsu and celebrate being university graduates and soon-to-be parents!”

 

When Yuuri walked out of his defense, Viktor hugged him. “Congratulations!”

“I haven’t even said whether I was successful,” Yuuri protested.

“You don’t have to. I know you were.”

“Yeah, okay, I was,” Yuuri admitted with a blush. “I’m done. I get to graduate. No more school-related anxiety.”

“Good! While you were in there, I talked to Chris.”

Which he did regularly, so this was probably something special. “What about?”

“French and language stuff.”

“Oh?”

“He says that in Switzerland, it’s not at all uncommon for kids to grow up learning four languages, just depending on their parents and where they’re going to school. Do you think you could code-switch to French in Japan?”

“I…” Yuuri thought it over. He was fluent, at least fluent enough to keep up with a child, and he’d have Viktor and Chris for help. “I’m not sure, but at least part of that’s probably just anxiety.”

“Then in Japan we have you speaking French, me speaking Russian, Mari speaking English, and your parents speaking Japanese, while in Russia I speak French, you speak Japanese, Yuri speaks English, and it won’t be hard to find someone to speak Russian. Chris thinks it could work.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the Big Brother Yuri Plisetsky chapter!
> 
> Timeline: late June 2015

After the graduation ceremony, which was somewhat tedious, Viktor, Yuuri, and Yuri headed for the airport. Viktor and Yuuri were headed for Hasetsu, while Yuri was off to New York to visit his family. Nikolai was going with him, and they’d meet up in Moscow, but the first leg of the trip was with Viktor and Yuuri.

While on the plane, Yuuri had a weirdass question for him. “What language do you speak with your sisters?”

“Russian? Duh? They both speak English, obviously, but Mama and Boris and I are all Russian, we speak Russian at their home.” Yuri stared at Yuuri. “Were you expecting me to say Turkish or something?”

“No, it’s just that Vitya and I have started talking about how we want to handle languages with our baby, and we came up with a plan. Once they come to Saint Petersburg, they’ll get Russian easily, so we’d prefer you to speak English with them. Okay?”

Yuri blinked and stared at Yuuri. It wasn’t that he had a problem with English, or speaking English – thanks to Yakov and Lilia, he spoke English as well as he spoke Russian, by now. “Makes sense to me. Why the big deal about it?”

“Because Vitya and I will be speaking other languages to the baby. We’re counting on you to be their main source for English.”

Yuri’s jaw dropped. “Why not you or the old man?”

“With your help, we can teach our kid four languages. Without your help, we’d probably drop French. Which wouldn’t be horrible, but if you’re willing to be around and speak English…”

Yuri was not going to cry. He wasn’t. Tigers don’t cry. “Okay, sure. Whatever. English isn’t a problem. The potty mouth might be.”

Yuuri put a hand over his mouth, trying to hide his snickers. “True. Please watch your vocabulary around our baby.”

 

Nikolai nodded in approval when Yuri told him about the plan. “I was skeptical, a bit, when Yakov brought the sponsorship offer to your mama and me, but Viktor really has considered you family since you were a small boy. It’s no surprise that he and Yuuri have come up with a scheme that includes you as a major part of their family.”

“Yakov could do it, or Lilia could speak French with the kid, but they picked me. Now they have a reason not to ignore me for their real family.” He was still trying to deal with what that meant for him. 

Nikolai put a hand on Yuri’s shoulder. “I don’t think they see it that way. I know it’s hard for you to believe, but you are their real family. Family is about so much more than shared blood.”

“Yeah, I know.” As much as he didn’t like the guy, Boris was family, even if he wasn’t blood. There wasn’t an actual marriage holding Viktor or Yuuri to him – and the thought made him shudder; the rumors hadn't cropped up in a while but he figured they'd be back as his sixteenth birthday approached – but they’d been there for him. Meanwhile, his actual blood… and that reminded him of something else he’d wanted to ask. “Grandpa? Romana wants me to come out and meet her baby this fall. Do you think I should go? Lev may be my father, but he’s not my papa. He’s not family. Should I give the kid a chance?”

Nikolai’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Lev is a bastard and a clown, but a child shouldn’t be held responsible for their father’s shortcomings. You and I were skeptical about Natasha at first, too, because she was Boris’s daughter and Irishka certainly was behaving terribly at the time as well. So far, she and Katya have turned out well.”

“Yeah, but Boris is just a jerk and kind of a workaholic, and Mama’s improved some. I barely know Romana, but Lev is an actual terrible person.” Yuri paused for a moment to think. “I’m kinda scared that I’m going to find out Lev’s using this kid as a ploy to get back in my life. We know he’s capable of using someone without caring about their feelings. If anyone’s going to be the kind of asshat who would do that to a baby, it’s him.”

“I certainly wouldn’t put it past him. I think you should go once, and depending on how that goes, perhaps go again later. When the baby is old enough to remember you and their parents have had time to demonstrate good faith.”

 

Boris picked Nikolai and Yuri up at the airport with Katya. “I’m very sorry about this, but somehow, I had it written down that you were coming in yesterday.”

“Sorry about what? Where’s Natasha?” Yuri would eat his skates if the answers weren’t connected somehow, but he could hope it was at least something good.

Boris raised an eyebrow, but let it go without comment. “Her dance class is having a recital at three. We’ve got just enough time that I can take you two to the apartment and drop off your bags and still get there in time, but Natasha needs to be there earlier. I know you’re probably tired from the flight, but Natasha’s so excited about this… and since we thought you were coming yesterday, we didn’t think there would be a problem with you two coming to see it.”

“I’m good. Let’s go.” Yuri adjusted his bag. “Grandpa? Are you going to be okay?”

“I wouldn’t miss my granddaughter’s dance recital, not when I’m this close. I hope you don’t have too much planned for afterward or tomorrow, though.”

“No. Dinner, but that’s it for today, and we were going to make plans for the rest of your time here during that.”

Natasha’s dance recital was adorable, if somewhat uncoordinated. Natasha and a couple of the other girls had some talent, but with fifteen kids, the entire thing was controlled adorable chaos. As soon as the girls had performed their curtsies, Natasha jumped off the stage and came running up to Yuri for a big hug. The instructor called after her, but other kids had followed her lead, running to their families, so the instructor just crossed her arms and waited.

“Yura! You made it! Mama said you would!”

“I made it. I’m glad I did, too, you did really well up there. Do you like dancing?”

Natasha nodded. “It was weird the first day, but I got used to it. Madame says I should stick with it and try to be a ballerina.”

“You could probably make it, but you’d have to put in a lot of hard work,” Yuri said. “If you love what you’re doing, hard work isn’t bad at all.”

“I don’t think I like dance that much. I wish you could have been here last week, when preschool had our puppet show! That was way more fun. I made a tiger! I got to do lots of growls and roars!” Natasha roared like a tiger.

“Wow, scary! I think your teacher’s looking for you, though. Go talk to her?”

 

Natasha was involved in several activities now. Dance, T-ball, skating lessons, occasional work for Boris or one of his friends, and a Spanish-language playgroup. “Why Spanish?” he asked Irina after dropping her off one day.

“I don’t know if you remember her friend Susana from Christmas. We discovered that the two of them would be going to the same school this fall for kindergarten, and thought it would be a good idea to encourage them to stay friends. They had dance together, but now that’s over until August, so this seemed like a good way to make sure they saw each other frequently.”

Now that Irina mentioned her, Yuri did remember hearing about Susana. He looked back at Katya. “What about you? Are you doing anything yet?”

Katya shook her head, sucking her thumb. Irina smiled apologetically. “Katya usually goes to a sitter while I’m at work, but since I’m off this week, we’re keeping her home too. Katya’s a lot shier than Natasha, you know.”

Katya was shy. Yuri remembered a few times when Natasha would retreat from him for a day or two when he first came, but she got over that quickly. Katya was still shy around him most of the time, but when given the choice between playing in the room where Irina was on her phone or the room where Yuri was on his, she routinely chose to play near Yuri. He took that as a sign that she liked him, and would talk to her about stuff.

The day before Yuri had to go, Katya had a doctor’s appointment to check the tubes in her ears, and Nikolai had gone with them. Yuri chose to stay behind. He was listening to some music Otabek sent him when Katya came up to him and patted his knee. “Sh… sorry, I hadn’t realized you guys were home,” he said when he saw Irina’s face at the music. “Sorry, I’ll put my headphones in.”

Katya pouted when the sound stopped. “More music?”

“Uh…” Yuri looked to Irina. Irina shrugged. “Sure.” The music came back, and Katya started slapping the floor in time with the music. For not quite two, she had a great sense of rhythm. Her giggles were adorable, too.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On The Naming of the Viktuuri Baby.
> 
> Warning for mild homophobia.
> 
> Timeline: late June 2015

Mari took one look at the list of names and started laughing. “Yuuri, you do know what Viktor put on here, right?”

“Of course I know! We created the list together, Mari, don’t be ridiculous.” Yuuri took the list back and looked it over, just to make sure that Viktor hadn’t… “Okay, I hadn’t seen the suggestion of naming the baby Tora or Neko, but I’m pretty sure those weren’t Viktor. You’ll notice those don’t have the kanji with them.”

“Yuuri’s the one who did all the kanji. You can tell because it looks like it was done by someone over the age of ten,” Viktor added once he’d stopped laughing at the additions to the list.

Mari shook her head. “Okay. Just making sure. Do you guys have favorites?”

“Viktor does, and you probably know exactly which ones those are,” Yuuri said, causing Mari to snort. “Mine change too frequently. I can’t settle on one.”

“Okay, well, any of these are fine by me except for Neko. You’re not considering Russian names?”

“We are, but more for future consideration,” Viktor said. “It just made more sense to use Japanese this time, since you’re Japanese and the baby’s going to be born in Japan. Do you have a favorite on there, or other suggestions?”

Mari shook her head. “Your baby, you should pick the name. There’s a couple I might steal for one of my own if you don’t use them, but don’t worry about saving names for me or anything.”

Yuuri put the list back in his pocket. “That’s happening? You’re going to have one of your own?”

“Unless something goes horribly wrong in the next few months, yeah, I want to. I’ve already talked to Bin and he said he’s happy to be the biological father.”

“Why Bin? I mean, you have leftover samples since this worked on the first try…” Yuuri said.

Mari smirked. “More fun with Bin. Takeshi’s said he’d do it, but he’s got the same problem Viktor does.”

“What… oh. Right.” Yuuri shut down his brain before it could go too far along that line of thought. “I’m sorry I asked.”

 

Hiroko and Toshiya had a couple suggestions, but Viktor still had his favorites. Yuri pretended to be disappointed at the rejection of Neko, but since Tora was still on the list – now with kanji – he grudgingly accepted the compromise.

Yuuko looked over the list and started giggling. “Who’s the joker?”

“Yuri.”

“No, not that one, obviously Tora was him. Who put Chihoko on the list?”

“What’s wrong with Chihoko? It’s a perfectly good name…” Yuuri said.

“You don’t remember?” Yuuko’s giggles got harder. “Your girlfriend, the one some guy used pictures of a model to prove existed and you weren’t really Viktor’s soulmate? You don’t want to name your daughter Chihoko or someone will drag that back up and say that reporter was right all along!”

Yuuri shook his head a couple times, but then his eyes went wide. “Oh no. I remember now. They ambushed me and Yakov nearly ripped Viktor’s head off for not having publicists in place yet! You’re right. No Chihoko.”

“No wonder that sounded vaguely familiar. I’d just assumed it was a skater I’d seen around,” Viktor added. “Thank you, Yuuko! Yuuri, we need to get that list to Phichit so he can make sure we don’t have a similar problem with other names.”

Yuuri took a picture of the list and sent it to Phichit, along with an explanation. “I can’t believe we nearly did that. I’m sure no matter what we name our baby someone’s going to be stupid about it, but at the very least, we can take away the softballs.”

“Speaking of Phichit, he’s got some betting pools going. Have you seen that?” Takeshi said.

“No?” Viktor pulled out his phone and started searching. “Betting on what?”

“Date of birth, name, date that the first picture will be leaked, things like that. There’s also a survey for guessing boy or girl. So far, boy’s winning.” Takeshi grinned. “Some of the comments make me think people don’t understand biology. One person said that since you’re both men, you can’t have a daughter.”

Yuuri blinked. “Okay, that doesn’t work even if Viktor or I could get the other pregnant, we both have X chromosomes. With Mari involved…”

Takeshi shrugged. “Some comments say that if it’s a girl you should let Mari keep it and try again, because girls need moms. Hamsters got all over that, don’t worry. Just be prepared for idiots.”

“Ugh. Why is Viktoria in the lead for a girl’s name?” Viktor said. “Do people really think I’m that egotistical?”

“Maybe they think I’m so in love with you I’d just name all our kids Viktor or Viktoria. I did name my dog after you, you know,” Yuuri said. “And you’re so moved by that being sweet that you go along with it.”

“Not happening. Some fathers do that to their children, but it always sounds awkward. Viktoria Viktorovna? I love my kids too much to do that to them. Vicchan’s different, he’s a dog, and I hadn’t met you yet and couldn’t stop you.” Viktor glared at his phone. “Same for naming our son Yuri. Even though it would be Yuri Viktorovich, don’t we have enough confusion?”

Yuuri looked over Viktor’s shoulder and scrolled down to the comments. “Look, someone’s already commented what I’m sure a lot of people are thinking, ‘don’t they already have a son named Yuri?’”

“And Yuri’s already responded to that, saying no you don’t,” Yuuko said. “He was a bit more colorful about it, but…”

“Fyodor and Magdalina at least make sense. Those are on the Russian list. Ezio? They think we’d name our son after the main character from Assassin’s Creed?”

Yuuri burst into giggles. “Look at this, someone suggested Ninja!”

“No way that would happen,” Takeshi said. “Not after you did an entire program about pirates just to show how much you hate ninja.”

“Viktor tried!” Yuuri wiped the tears from his eyes. “That was the one thing I put my foot down and said no on. Everything else was either Viktor, or someone else giving us a good reason, like Chihoko.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the other skaters get their soulmates. Wheeeee!
> 
> Timeline: Late July/Early August 2015

Back home, everyone buckled down and got to work. Viktor and Yuuri were both behind where they wanted to be, and with the distractions fall would bring, they wanted to take full advantage of July. Yuri was in a better position, having trained normally since Junior Worlds, and with the prospect of no real competition this year, it wasn’t hard to convince himself to be a bit lazy. Of course, like Yuuri, his lazy looked like many skaters’ hard work. He was drilling hard, he just wasn’t pushing himself.

Mid-month, Yuri took a day off that meant he had his phone when Otabek called. “If I didn’t have a competition in three weeks, I’d be running off to Russia or Kazakhstan.”

“TAKE ME WITH YOU!” Cécile yelled loud enough for Yuri to hear. “TAKE ALL OF US WITH YOU!”

“I’m not going anywhere! I have to compete!” Otabek shouted back. “Sorry about that, Yura.”

Yuri blinked. Otabek wanting to get home was nothing new, but Cécile? “What’s going on? Why are you guys wanting out of Canada?”

“It’s not out of Canada. It’s away from JJ.”

Yuri scowled. “I thought you and JJ were friends.” He didn't understand that, but he could at least accept reality.

“We are. He’s usually a pretty cool guy. Thing is, yesterday was his eighteenth birthday.”

“Oh. Soulmate issues? Who is it? Anyone I know?” For just a moment, Yuri panicked. He shook his head rapidly to clear it. If Otabek were JJ’s soulmate, he wouldn’t be wanting to get out of Canada. If Yuri were JJ’s soulmate, JJ would have already stolen Otabek’s phone to call to tell him. Unless JJ were a decent enough guy to wait until Yuri’s sixteenth birthday like Yuri was demanding, but then, he probably wouldn’t be insufferable enough to make Otabek and Cécile want to leave Canada.

“Isabella Yang. Which is great, I’m happy for them, they’ve been best friends since like fifth grade, but right now they’re sitting at the kitchen table plotting lists of names for their children and their pets. The rest of us were trying to eat breakfast, but we couldn’t with all the gooey mush in the air.”

“Try living with the piglet and the old man. You get used to it, eventually," Yuri said, relief washing through him. "Wait, they’re already planning kids? How old is Isabella?”

“Seventeen, she’ll be eighteen in March. They’re not planning on having them right away, but they want to be prepared. Isabella wants to be pregnant with their first kid when she graduates from university, and they still have another year of high school to finish.”

“Gross. Hopefully they’ll chill, but if not, extra incentive to get out of Canada next year?”

“Yeah. My coach is doing fine, for now, but we’ll see how it goes when I actually compete.”

“If you go back to Kazakhstan, what happens to Dariya’s chances of getting out and getting some real coaching?”

“Getting out? Not happening, not if I’m not out there with her.” About what Yuri had figured. He felt bad for Dariya. “Getting real coaching, very good, since unless there’s some huge personality conflict between them there’s no reason my coach can’t coach her too. They’re sending him video and he’s talking to her on Skype, so she’s got that going for her.”

“Oh yeah. That’s good.”

“Then if I leave Kazakhstan after that season, I think my parents might let her come with me. Probably depends on where I’m going, I guess.”

Yuri stared at his phone. “What the fuck? Why would you leave Kazakhstan? You'd have just gotten back!”

“If my soulmate’s somewhere else and isn’t willing to come to me but wants me to come to them, I’d consider going. It just depends who they are and where and why they’re not the one moving. If they’re sixteen or seventeen and want to finish school in their home country, then as long as I can have a rink to train at, I can do that easily enough.”

Oh, yeah, Yuri should've thought of that. “Good point. Be funny if you ended up back in Canada.”

“Heh. It would. I want to stay in Kazakhstan, though. Lots easier to inspire Kazakhstani kids to skate if I’m training in Kazakhstan, you know?”

 

At the beginning of August, Viktor and Yuuri assessed their progress. Viktor felt completely comfortable with where he was. Yuuri felt less comfortable. Still, he agreed that they were in good enough shape to go to Thailand for a week. “Can I go too?” Yuri asked when he heard they were going.

“Why?” Yakov asked.

“I have friends competing too, and you know a week off won’t hurt me too badly.”

Yakov rolled his eyes, but looked to Viktor and Yuuri. “Are you two willing to spend your vacation looking after Yuri?”

“Sure, why not? He’s fun, and old enough to go off with his friends if he doesn’t want to do something with us,” Viktor said. “If you’re willing to let him go, I don’t mind!” Yuuri nodded his agreement.

“Fine. You can go, Yuri.”

 

When they got to Thailand, Yuuri found Phichit quickly. “Think you’ve got a chance at winning this one for Thailand?”

“A chance, yes. I sure hope so, because I’m the only entry in any of the men’s competitions. Seung Gil and Yuhan are the ones most likely to beat me, although I guess Masaki could. I’m glad you got to come! How are things going?”

Viktor grinned. “Yuuko’s mom has informed everyone that she’s certain the baby’s a girl, and she hopes we aren’t too disappointed by that. She’s even started referring to the baby as Joshi.”

“Which, she was right about Takeshi’s nephew being a boy, so she’s been right once. Jiahao and the triplets they found out at the ultrasound, so she’s got a perfect record…” Yuuri shrugged. “I don’t know why she thinks we’d be so disappointed with a girl.”

“Because she’s weird. If we ask Yuuko to carry our next child when she retires, her mom will try to talk her out of it until she’s tried to give Takeshi a son.” Viktor smirked. “I think she feels bad about never having had one herself.”

“Probably. Hey, you’ll never guess who’s here!” Phichit said. He didn’t give them a chance to answer. “Leo came!”

“Leo? Why’s he here?” Yuri asked. “Where is he?”

“Come on, we’re meeting up for dinner, I’ll let him tell you himself.”

 

Dinner turned out to be at Phichit’s parents’ house, cooked by his family. It didn’t take long to figure out why Leo had come, as he had Guang Hong in his lap. “Soulmate?” Yuuri guessed.

“Soulmate! He was so mad when I showed up he hit me with a stuffed lion,” Leo said.

Guang Hong giggled and stared at him. “I did? Why?”

“Because it took me so long to fall asleep. I didn’t want to find out it wasn’t you.”

“And here I was looking forward to a break from new soulmates being mushy,” Otabek grumbled. “I’m happy for you guys, but it’s really annoying to be around.”

“Oh, please, you and Yuri are going to be just as bad next year,” Leo said.

“No, we are not,” Yuri snapped. “And that’s if I’m his soulmate, which we don’t know, not everyone gets their best friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Pink Cabbages" is now canon. "Soulmates, JJ Style" is not, because developments in canon mean it can't be, but JJBella is.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asian Open
> 
> Timeline: August 6-8, 2015

The skating started with basic novices, followed by the junior men. Guang Hong and Kenjirou were both skating in the second group, so Yuuri, Viktor, and Yuri joined Leo in the stands while the first group skated. Dariya came over and sat beside Yuri, glaring. “What’s so bad about having my brother as a soulmate?”

“Huh?” Yuri stared at Dariya, trying to figure out where the hell this was coming from. “Beka would be an awesome soulmate. Where’d you get the idea there was something bad about it?”

“Last night, when you got so huffy about Leo teasing Beka about it. He acts like he’s not hoping for anyone special, he may even believe his own bullshit, but he wants it to be you. So could you please not be a dick about it where he can hear you?”

Yuri thought back, trying to remember what had happened. He scowled when he realized what Dariya must mean. “That had nothing to do with it being Beka. I like Beka. As long as he’s not distracting me from a Grand Prix event, I would love to get the call that he’s my soulmate. He’s one of the ones who doesn’t have to wait until I’m sixteen. I’m not gonna get slobbery and weird with anyone my soulmate ends up being. That’s what I was mad at Leo about.”

“Oh.” Dariya blushed a little. “Sorry. But talk to Beka after he skates? Because he misunderstood, and he’s kind of upset about it, and I don’t care if he gets mad at me for telling you that.”

“Okay, but I’m a little confused, here. How does saying not everyone’s lucky enough to get their best friend mean that I think getting my best friend would be a bad thing, anyway?”

Dariya shrugged. “You didn’t say the lucky part? And getting your best friend as your soulmate means you don’t have that friend to go to when you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to kick your ass because you and your soulmate are fighting. Some people really don’t want their best friend to be their soulmate because of that.”

“She’s got a point there,” Viktor said.

Yuri rolled his eyes. “Right, because Yuuri’s not your best friend.”

“He’s not.” Viktor reached out and took Yuuri’s hand. “He’s my soulmate and my beloved and a very good friend, but Chris is my best friend, and Phichit’s Yuuri’s. Sometimes your best friend would be a terrible soulmate for you, like me and Chris. Phichit and Yuuri would probably have been okay. You and Otabek should be okay if you end up being soulmates, but if you’re not, that may end up being just as well.”

 

Guang Hong won the juniors short program, with Kenjirou right behind him. In the ladies’, Japan swept the top three places, and a Thai skater finished sixth. The senior men followed them. Li Yuhan was the only one Viktor or Yuuri knew from the first group. He and another Chinese skater were on top heading into the second group, which had Phichit, Seung Gil, Otabek, and Masaki. Otabek skated first, and he did well, but not well enough to pass Yuhan. He did beat Seung Gil, who had a fall on an overrotated triple loop, but not Phichit, who put forth an amazing skate to finish the day on top, followed by Yuhan and Otabek.

Yuuri jumped a little when they announced the first skater in the ladies’. “I’m really surprised Sako came. Yuuko and Iona and Kei didn’t.”

“She’s already struggling a little to keep her spot in international competitions, and with Takako likely moving up next year, maybe she wanted the chance to prove something early this season, or the low-pressure competition before she had to be on top,” Viktor suggested.

“Yeah, I guess,” Yuuri said. “Of course, that just puts pressure on her to win.”

Sako was in the lead after the first group, well ahead of Australia’s Tahlia. Yuri scrunched up his face. “Since when is Australia part of Asia?”

“They’re part of the Asian Skating Union because it’s closer than Europe or the Americas and they don’t exactly have much of a competition on their own continent… occasionally you get a skater from New Zealand, but that’s about it,” Yuuri said. No one from the second group got close to Sako, although China’s Ling beat Tahlia to increase the pressure. 

 

Yuri caught up to Otabek while the second group of senior ladies were skating. “Hey. Dariya said you were upset last night.”

“Dariya has a big mouth and an overactive imagination. I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” Otabek said, not smiling.

“Maybe so, but I don’t care… no, that’s not right either. If you’re my soulmate, I’m going to be fucking thrilled. I’m just not going to get so schmoopy and gross that we’re making other people uncomfortable. Okay?”

“It’s okay if you…”

“Don’t be an idiot, Beka. If you’re my soulmate, I want to know about it as soon as you wake up from finding out, unless I’m in whatever Grand Prix event is that weekend and have to compete that day, or you are and don’t want me to distract you more than you have to be. Even then, I want to know as soon as the competition’s over. Getting you means I’ve won the fucking soulmate lottery.”

Otabek swallowed hard and nodded. “Unless one or both of us are competing, you’ll know as soon as I do once I find out who my soulmate is. Don’t go getting your hopes up. The odds are not exactly in our favor.”

“Yeah, I know, but no matter who our soulmates are, you’re my best friend. That’s important. Deal?”

“Yeah. Deal.”

 

Day 2 of competition began with the advanced novices. Viktor and Yuuri spent most of the day out on the town with Phichit, Seung Gil, and Leo, shopping and letting Phichit show off his home city. Yuri chose to go watch the skating with Otabek, Kenjirou, and Guang Hong. “Surprised Leo went with the shoppers. There’s no way Viktor and Yuuri would voluntarily separate like that.”

“He offered to stay back, but the only reason I did is because I don’t trust myself when I have to compete later tonight,” Guang Hong said. “There is no way I wouldn’t eat myself out of a medal. That’s no reason he can’t go enjoy the city!”

Dariya took a surprising second, behind a Japanese skater. She was still bouncing from excitement when she got up to the stands. “I’m so proud of myself! This is awesome!”

“It is!” Otabek hugged her. “Do you want to stay and watch the juniors, or go celebrate?”

“Stay. Celebrate tomorrow, if I hold on and get a medal.”

The others joined them as the last of the older group of basic novices were finishing up their skate. At the end of the junior men’s skates, Guang Hong had gold, Kenjirou silver. Leo couldn’t get to Guang Hong fast enough to celebrate. Japan swept the ladies’, while the Thai skater Phichit had come to watch finished in eighth – still a very good showing, but slightly disappointing after the day before.

 

On the final day of skating, everyone skipped the first few events – the younger group of basic novices, and the boys’ advanced novices. They all went to watch Dariya try to win a medal. She held onto silver, barely holding off an Australian skater who made a good charge at the top.

There was a bit of shuffling in the senior men’s skate at the lower end, but the biggest move was Seung Gil. He had a great free skate, which put him well ahead of the pack. Otabek did well, but not well enough as Seung Gil was still ahead of him. Yuhan made a few mistakes, enough to drop him below Otabek and guarantee Kazakhstan its second medal of the day. Phichit also stumbled a couple times, giving Seung Gil gold, himself silver, and Otabek bronze. Sako held on to win the senior ladies’ gold, with China’s Ling second and an Indian skater moving up to take a surprising bronze over Tahlia.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JGP Slovakia. Cockroach time.
> 
> Timeline: August 19-22

Yuri’s first competition was two weeks later. He and Yakov left for Slovakia. At the airport, Yuri started cursing. “What is he even doing here?”

Yakov followed Yuri’s gaze. “Good question. I wonder if Romana came, too. I don’t see her.”

“Wouldn’t she want to stay home in case the baby comes early? Why would she want to risk giving birth in Slovakia?”

Yakov shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m just asking. Lev’s here, and if he wants us to believe this thing where he’s changed and he’s going to be a good family man now, he should be with his pregnant wife. So either he’s left her at home, or she’s here.”

“If there were seniors here, I’d guess he came to check out the pretty girls in short skirts, but he’s never been _that_ much of a creep. That I know of, anyway.” Yuri made a face. “Which leaves me. He’s here to watch me.”

“Probably.” Yakov gave Yuri a gentle push to get moving. “So far he’s been good about staying away, so let’s get out of here before he decides to change that?”

 

Romana called the next day. “If you haven’t already, you might see Lev. I couldn’t come – my doctor doesn’t want me to leave the country this close to my due date – but Lev wanted to be there to watch you.”

“What if you go into labor? That’s why you couldn’t travel, right?”

“Yes, but if I go into labor, I need to get to a hospital as quickly as I can. He can get on a plane or a train and be back here in less than half a day.”

“Still might miss the birth,” Yuri grumbled.

“True, but really, the chances of me going into labor are low enough that we decided that was an acceptable risk. Have you decided whether you’re coming to meet your little brother?”

It was a risk, but Yuri had talked himself into it. Of course, he’d be taking precautions about being around Lev. There was no way he was going alone, which meant planning around skating competitions. Fortunately, there was some time off between Georgi and Mila wrapping up the Challenger Series and the beginning of the Grand Prix. “Yeah, if it’s all right with you, Yakov and Lilia are going to bring me down for a few days around October 15th. If there’s a problem, just let me know and we can move that some.”

“No, that sounds perfect.”

“Unless something’s wrong with you or the baby and you haven’t recovered by then. You can’t promise that now. Just let me know if something comes up.” Katya had been all right, but he still remembered how his mother had been so worried about Natasha that she’d forgotten to call and tell Nikolai and Yuri about her birth.

 

When the call was over, he went to find Richard. “Hey.”

“Yuri! How’s it going? Getting excited about the babies?”

“One, yeah. Viktor and Yuuri’s kid is gonna be awesome. Not so sure about Romana’s.”

“I always wanted a little brother, but my moms said one was enough. Are you hoping for a boy or a girl for Viktor and Yuuri’s?”

Yuri had to stop and think about that one. No one had asked him. “I’ve had good experiences with little sisters. Never had a little brother. There’s good things either way, so I’ll be happy either way, but I kind of want a boy. It’ll be a lot more fair a comparison between brothers and sisters that way than if the only brother is Romana’s kid.”

 

Yuri’s first skate was on the 21st, and he was skating in the final group, along with Richard. When they took the ice for warmups, the highest scores were in the low 60s. Nothing for Yuri to worry about. The skater before Richard earned a 68, which had Yuri a little nervous for his friend. Richard’s score of 65 was close, and might be good enough for third for the day.

Yuri skated immediately after Richard. He felt a little silly in the bright blue bodysuit, but at least he wasn’t wearing a capeless Superman costume. It was enough to get the colors – mostly blue, with red and yellow trim. His hair, now reaching past his shoulders, was held back in a simple braid. The music was fun, and Yuri quite enjoyed pretending to be a superhero. He preferred Batman, but couldn’t disagree with Viktor that the Superman music was more fun.

For where he was in the season, 73 was fine, but after breaking 80 the year before it was somewhat disappointing. Oh well, he’d get back over 80 by Junior Worlds, and then next year he’d be able to do a quad and could start getting up way higher. Yakov had a lot of criticism, too, so he wasn’t too worried about it. The last skater got a 63, putting him in fourth. A five-point lead was fine by Yuri.

He decided to stick around to watch the ladies’ free skates. He didn’t know any of them, but he’d heard that it was one of the Japanese skater’s birthday, so he wanted to see if she won. She did. It was also a good way to avoid Lev, Angels, and reporters. It wasn’t entirely effective – there was a reporter waiting for him when he left after the ladies’ victory ceremony. “Yuri! Do you have a minute?”

Yuri crossed his arms, glaring at the guy. “One, maybe. What do you want?”

“What do you think your chances of winning tomorrow are?”

“Good. I’m in the lead, and my free skate is better than last year’s. I got this.”

“Is there someone you want on the podium with you?”

“Yeah. The two best skaters other than me. I’d like to see it be Richard, and I think he’s got a good shot.”

“Both of your events are early this year. A lot of skaters don’t like that. Are you okay with it?”

“For this year, it’s exactly what I wanted. Early, late, doesn’t matter, I just go out and skate my best. Everyone else in the competition’s had the same amount of time to work on their programs, can watch the same skates I have, so it’s not like there’s any big advantage or disadvantage. Two golds gets me to the Finals, no matter which two golds they are.”

“You wanted early this year? Why?”

“Because I’ve got some other important shit going on next month and this way I’m not distracted.”

“Like what?”

Yuri just stared at the guy. Anyone involved in figure skating knew the big story for next month. “My cat’s been elected king of Felinia and I have to go to the coronation. Bye.” He left the reporter sputtering as he walked away.

 

The ringing phone woke Yuri up the next morning. Viktor. “Congratulations to your cat! I do hope he’ll still have time for his lowly common dog friends.”

“He’ll try. Being king’s a big job, you know. Especially king of cats. Cats are not exactly respectful of authority.”

“Have you talked to Yakov yet?”

“No. Is he gonna be mad at me?” On the one hand, Yakov knew him, and his lack of patience with bullshit. On the other hand, Yakov _was_ trying to promote him, and a good relationship with the media made that a lot easier.

“Probably. Just let him rant, promise not to do it again, and then when you get asked such a stupid question in the future give them the stupid answer they deserve anyway.”

 

Yakov ranted, Yuri “listened”, and then it was behind them as Yuri suited up again. This time, it was much cooler – a black leather jumpsuit inspired by the X-Men movies. It was perfect for Yuri. He felt a familiar wave of frustration when he watched the second-place skater attempt a quad toe loop – he could do it, if Yakov would just let him. Denis couldn’t. He fell. It wasn’t going to be enough to let Richard overtake him for silver, but it was enough that Yuri had no concerns at all about winning gold.

He stepped out onto the ice full of confidence. He struggled a bit with the layback spin he was trying this year, using a Biellmann variation, but he didn’t let that faze him. He’d get it by the finals. He wasn’t going to dwell on it, just listen to what Yakov said at the end. The mistake on the triple toe loop, that one he’d dwell on. It was the easiest jump he was doing. How did he fuck that one up? At least he didn’t fall.

Yakov focused on the toe loop, with some good advice on the spin as well. As soon as the score popped up, Yuri didn’t care anymore. 144, for a total of 217, was perfectly fine by him. Gold is gold.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JPG America
> 
> Timeline: September 1-5

Guang Hong took his first gold in Latvia. Yuri got on a plane to Colorado on September 1st. This was going to be a big month – second gold of the season, second trip to the finals, two babies, and his cat’s coronation. That had blown up on the internet, and the Angels had created a full heraldry for His Majesty Puma Tiger Scorpion the First, King of Felinia, Defender of Freedom, Slayer of Mice, Enemy of All Tuna, and Keeper of the String. For once, Yuri was feeling some love for his fan club.

The surprise waiting at the airport this time was much more welcome, as Yuri picked up a tiny blonde hug attack. “Hi, Natasha! What are you doing here?”

“Mama wanted to watch you skate! Papa said we could come! He thought it would be fun for me and keep me distracted from school starting on Tuesday!”

Yuri blinked and stared down at Natasha. “School?”

“School! I’m starting kindergarten!”

No. Yuri’s cute baby sister could not be old enough to be going to school. “Why?”

“Because I’m five now and that’s when you start!” Natasha tugged Yuri over to the others. “Mama! Papa! I found him!”

Yuri held out his arms to Katya. She hesitated, but let Yuri take her for a hug. She then wanted to go back to Irina. The shock stayed with him as they left the airport. How had his little sister gotten so big?

 

Natasha had a present for Yuri – or, more accurately, for Potya. “I know he won’t wear it, but a king needs a crown!” She handed Yuri a strip of cardboard colored to look like a fairy tale crown that would fold into a small circle. “For Potya.”

Yuri took it trying hard not to laugh too much at the thought of Potya in a crown. With luck, he could get it to stay on long enough for a picture. The Angels would love it, and Natasha deserved it for her hard work on the crown.

“So Viktor and Yuuri’s baby is due when?” Irina asked.

“September 20th, I think, but I’m not sure. They’re thinking it’ll be a little late, it runs in Yuuri’s family.”

“And Lev’s little…” Irina cut herself off at a glare from Boris. “Wife’s baby? When is it coming?”

“I dunno the exact date. By the end of the month. Why do you care?” Yuri hadn’t known Irina to care about Romana or the baby before, and after the explosion earlier that year, thought Irina was going to just throw them on the pile of “people we don’t talk about.”

“I don’t,” Irina lied badly. “Just curious. Has he abandoned her yet?”

“Nope. Seems like he’s gonna be there. Whatever game he’s playing there, he’s not through with yet.” It would probably explode in October, when Yuri went to meet the kid, but Irina didn’t need to know about that visit just yet. If ever. If things went badly, Yuri was never going back, and Irina didn’t need to know.

 

Irina and Boris being there meant that as long as he showed up to practice, Yakov pretty much let Yuri do whatever he wanted as long as one of them went with him. Yuri spent most of the time with his sisters, joined by Cécile when she wasn’t busy with her practice. “Has your idiot brother settled down any yet?”

“On the soulmate lovey-dovey crap? Yeah, they’ve mostly gotten it out of their system. Otabek’s stopped threatening to move back to Kazakhstan early, most of the little ones have stopped asking when we got another sister, Mom doesn’t have that worried look in her eyes all the time.”

“Worried about what?”

“That they’d get stupid and get married and start having kids right away. I think, specifically, she was worried about the marriage and kids happening in the wrong order. Now that they’ve settled down, she’s relaxed a lot. School starting next week helps. JJ and Isabella are both near the top of their class and want to stay there for scholarships to university next year. That means they need to spend a lot of time studying, so there’s less time for slobbering.”

“Good. There’s hope. Maybe one day Viktor and Yuuri will chill, too.”

 

First day of skating was men’s and pairs. Klaus was skating in the first group, and he looked really good for his first year in juniors. A horrible mistake on his triple axel, popped to a single, left him with a 65. Not bad. Klaus could be a threat at the Finals, if he could fix that triple axel. No one else broke 60 until the final group. Yuri was skating fourth in that group, and he was not feeling any pressure at all. He could go out there and just have fun.

It showed in his jumps and his spins, elevating his performance. His triple Lutz-triple toe loop combo soared, and he felt really good about his camel spin toward the end of his performance. Yakov’s criticism brought him back down – he wasn’t going over 80, but he did get up to 77. Neither of the final two skaters beat Klaus, let alone Yuri, giving him a twelve point lead.

“I don’t want you getting cocky, Yuri. Yes, you will probably win this one, but if Klaus gets that triple axel fixed, he can beat you in the Finals. Don’t write him off. I don’t see a twelve-point comeback unless he uses a quad and you make mistakes, but still. It would bother you not to win the free skate segment.”

“Yeah, okay,” Yuri said. If Klaus had a quad, Yuri was going to be very upset about not getting to do one. Maybe Yakov would let him start working so he could be ready for seniors? He’d ask, if Klaus did a quad.

Reporters caught Yuri just outside. “Congratulations! You don’t really have any competition here. Does that make it hard to get motivated for tomorrow?”

“Nah. It’s not likely I lose the gold, but in novices, Klaus was usually pretty close to me in scores. I like to win, and I don’t want to lose the free skate to Klaus. He’s a great skater. His axel just sucked today. Definitely gonna watch out for him at Finals.”

 

Second day of skating was the other two short programs, with the men’s free skate as the last event. Yuri skipped ice dance, but went with his family to watch the ladies’ for Cécile. She did really well, finishing second for the day behind an American skater. Yuri completely ignored the first groups of the men’s skate. They weren’t threatening him, they weren’t going to Finals, there wasn’t much chance they’d improve enough by Worlds to threaten him there, why should he care?

Two of the skaters in the final group before Klaus did a quad, and Yuri smirked when Klaus did, too. Good reasoning to get Yakov to at least let him start working on one. He’d have to beat Klaus today, prove that he could win without it in juniors, and then argue his point from there. He’d also have to get that Biellmann spin, or Yakov would be able to say not until he got that down.

He got it – not perfectly, but better, at least. He also nailed the triple toe loop he’d stumbled on in Slovakia. His performance was great. Great enough? Yuri thought so. Yakov didn’t have it easy coming up with criticism, although he was a true master and kept talking the entire time while they waited for the score. Klaus’s 148 would have beaten Yuri in Slovakia, but Yuri had made some mistakes there he hadn’t here. His 152 cheered him considerably. Perfect.

“I know what you’re going to say,” Yakov said after Yuri came back with his gold medal.

“And?”

“And I’ll make you the same deal I made Yuuri. Toe loop or salchow only, closely supervised by me or Viktor, and you will not use it in junior competitions. I don’t like the idea, you’re still so young, but you’ll be preparing for seniors next year and the quad is the only reason you couldn’t start off as a contender for gold medals. And if I sanction it with restrictions, I can trust you not to go trying to learn it behind my back. Yes?”

“Yes! Thank you!” Yuri hugged Yakov. Gold medal, trip to Finals, and permission to do a quad? Best day ever!

 

Cécile remained in second after the ladies’ free skate. She was cheerful about it. “It’s my first year, and I’ve got a good shot at gold in Poland. Besides, it was close here!”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yellow Alert!
> 
> Timeline: September 2015

Getting on the plane to Japan really made it sink in for Yuuri that his life was about to change. When he and Viktor came back, they’d have a child. They’d know. So many questions would be answered. Would their baby be normal? Would they have trouble feeding? Would they have some sort of birth problem? Boy or girl? Who would they look like?

Viktor pulled Yuuri into him. “This is so exciting, isn’t it? In only a few weeks, we get to meet our baby!”

“Exciting. Terrifying. Scary. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m scared, too.”

“Yeah, I get that. It’s going to be fun, but everything’s different now! It feels kind of weird, being on this plane instead of in class today. Don’t you think?”

Yuuri grinned. “I’m the one you had to talk down from a panic attack because Yakov gave us the day off on the 1st and I freaked out about waking up so late because I was just sure I was missing class, remember?” He’d been quite embarrassed about that.

Next to him, Yuri snorted. “Seriously? You freaked out about having a proper day off?”

“Make fun all you like, it’s ridiculous of me and I know it, but yes. I did.” Yuuri stuck his tongue out at Yuri. “I’ve been in school or tutoring since I was six. It’s weird not to be!”

 

It was a good thing they had skating to distract them, because with Mari right there, it was hard for Viktor not to be over-attentive. A couple days after they got there, Mari was already sick of it. “I’m _fine_ , Viktor. Everything’s fine.”

“What if that was labor starting? It’s still a little early, but…”

“It’s not labor starting.” Mari put a hand to her stomach. “It’s my body getting ready for it. These started about a week ago, they’re not very frequent, and when I called because I was having them with Jiahao, my doctor said that when one came on I should try to take a walk because that can help make them stop. I’ve done this before, Mom did this twice, quit. Worrying. So. Much.”

“But…”

“No. Go skate. Teach the triplets something. You’re going to drive me crazy if you stay here, and that’s the last thing the baby and I need.”

 

When a disgruntled Viktor showed up at the rink, Yuuko hugged him. “Mari kicked you out?”

“Yes! I’m just worried about my kid, is that really so bad?”

“No, it’s not bad,” Yuuko reassured him. “It’s frustrating, on both sides. It was the opposite for me and Takeshi… he was the one constantly talking me down from worrying over every little thing. He had to remind me that women have been doing this for a very long time, so as long as my doctor wasn’t concerned when I went in for checkups, chances were things were fine. Mari’s done this before, she’ll know if something doesn’t feel right. When you start worrying too much, you can call me or Takeshi. We’ll let you know you’re being silly.”

Viktor took a deep breath. “Or I can just tell Yuri I pissed off Mari again. He’ll kick some sense into me.”

Yuuko giggled. “It’s okay to worry, Viktor. Expectant moms have been dealing with expectant dads getting anxious for as long as they’ve existed. Just don’t go freaking Mari out because you are. Come on, Takeshi was just getting ready to teach the kids a loop jump. I bet he wouldn’t mind having you join him.”

“Are Axel and Lutz jealous?”

“Axel is, because it’s going to be a while before she gets to hers, but Lutz is fine with it.”

 

In addition to being on the ice, whether training or teaching the triplets, there was also watching competitions. The first one was the fourth Junior Grand Prix qualifier. Yuri was interested to see how Richard did – after taking third, Finals was a bit of a long shot, but then again, he had a good chance at gold here. Takako took the ladies’ gold to put her in the finals, and Richard claimed the men’s gold. It wasn’t a guarantee yet, but he had a good chance at the Finals now.

The other competition was the US International Challenge Cup, the first of the Challenger Series for the year. This one, everyone was interested in, because they had friends skating. After the men’s short program, Chris had the lead, followed by Michele, Rykov, Sachio, and Leo. Yuri snickered at Saviliy finishing seventh. “Looks like he’s gonna be another has-been. Rykov kicked his ass, and Viktor and Georgi can kick Rykov’s ass any day. Sucks to be him.”

“Yuri…” Viktor said.

“And then I’ll be up there next year, so that’s four skaters better than him.”

“Yuri, that’s enough,” Mari said. “Saviliy’s a jerk, yes, but there’s no need to be a jerk right back.”

“Fine, whatever. At least Chris and Leo looked good.”

 

The ladies’ short program the next day was equally rewarding, as Skye skated her way to first place, ahead of Cathy and Emily. About a minute into Leo’s free skate, Mari let out a hiss and got to her feet. Viktor was beside her in an instant. “Are you okay?”

“I think so. This doesn’t feel like labor yet.” Mari took a couple of deep breaths. “Gonna go take a walk, see if that helps. Should be back by the time Chris is up.”

“I’ll come with you, just in case.”

Mari waved him off. “Akemi?”

Akemi got to her feet. “I’ve got her, Viktor. I promise, I’ll call if this starts looking real.”

Viktor hesitated, but eventually nodded. “Thank you.” He sat back down beside Yuuri, who leaned in against him, head on his shoulder.

As promised, Mari made it back midway through Michele’s skate. “False alarm, just a bad one. I’m not used to all this sitting around, I guess. I miss anything awesome or terrible?”

“Rykov’s going to medal,” Yuri said. “Since Chris and Michele probably have the other two, Leo won’t get one, but he’s gonna be close.” Chris did indeed hold on for gold, with Michele silver and Rykov bronze.

 

During the ladies’ free skate, Mari kept fidgiting. Viktor tried to remind himself that she was fine, but eventually, he broke. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, just a little on edge. Don’t freak out. Everything’s fine. Think the baby’s gonna be coming in the next few days, which makes sense because tomorrow’s the official due date.”

Viktor’s eyes got huge. “Oh! Do you…”

“Viktor. Next few days, not next few hours. I’m fine, I’m not gonna go anywhere unless I have my phone or someone else with me just in case, just relax. Trust me. I’m not gonna let you miss it when it’s time to go.”

Viktor turned his attention back to the skating. It was nice to see Skye win gold. Emily’s silver and Cathy’s bronze were nice, and Phichit’s rinkmate Amy finished in seventh. Phichit should be happy about that!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RED ALERT!!!
> 
> Timeline: September 20-21, 2015

The night after the competition, everyone was gathered for dinner when Mari dropped her chopsticks, putting a hand to her lower back. “Yuuri, what time is it?”

Yuuri checked his phone. “6:37, why?”

“That one felt real. Don’t anyone go getting excited, Viktor, but I need to know timing on these.” Mari took a deep breath and went back to eating her rice and vegetables. “In fact, if you can, you might want to go take a nap when you’re done eating. This will take a while.”

“Take a nap? How am I supposed to sleep? Baby’s coming! Soon!” Viktor started bouncing. “I’m going to be too wound up to sleep!”

Mari shook her head with a fond smile. “Soon is relative. I probably won’t need to go to the hospital for hours, still. I’m gonna go to bed when I finish this unless I have another contraction in the next few minutes. Trust me. Take the chance to sleep while you’ve got it.”

“Everything’s ready? Your bag is packed? You know what you want to happen when we get there? You’re ready to…”

“Viktor. Chill. The best thing I can do for your baby is to relax and just let things happen, and that’s hard to do when you’re over there going bananas. Okay? Everything’s ready. When my water breaks or my contractions start getting close together, we can be ready to go in five minutes.”

Yuuri hugged Viktor. “I’ll look after him, Mari. Is there anything you want us to do?”

“Keep your phones charged and come check on me once an hour or so. Doesn’t always have to be you, you should get some sleep too.” Mari took a couple more bites of rice, and Viktor tried to force himself to chill.

 

Viktor lay awake, arms around Yuuri as he waited. It was almost time to go check on Mari. He hadn’t been able to sleep, and was very impressed that Yuuri was managing it. Viktor looked at his phone. Five minutes.

Mari hadn’t been joking about the wait. He’d been waiting for months, a few hours should have just flown by. They hadn’t. This felt like the longest few hours of his life. It reminded him a lot of waiting for his dream, except that then he’d had a competition to distract him during the day and he could drug himself in order to sleep. He refused to drug himself tonight – he didn’t want to be foggy if Mari had to wake him up.

He checked his phone again, just in time to see a message.

**_Wake up Yuuri. I’ll get Mom._ **

Viktor dropped his phone and shook Yuuri. “Wake up! It’s time!”

Yuuri blinked, yawning and stretching as he stretched up. “What time is it?”

“Just past midnight. Get up! Let’s go!”

Yuuri swung his feet out of bed, grabbing the pants on his nightstand. “Did you sleep at all?”

“No." Yuuri shook his head, and Viktor felt the need to defend himself. "I tried, I swear, but I couldn’t!”

 

The trip to the hospital felt a lot longer than Viktor had expected from prior experience. Mari’s contractions were getting close together – only a few minutes apart now – and so much worse than the ones Viktor had gotten used to over the past two weeks. He no longer wondered how she could be sure she hadn’t been in labor.

Toshiya drove, while Hiroko called the hospital to let them know they were on the way. Viktor and Yuuri had Mari between them, holding her hands and talking her through the contractions. When they got to the hospital, Toshiya stayed at the front desk to handle the paperwork while Viktor, Yuuri, and Hiroko went with Mari to her room.

Once again, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Viktor had expected that this part would go quickly, but when he looked at his watch convinced it had been an hour, it had only been twenty minutes. Mari was surprisingly quiet, something he commented on after a contraction.

“You've watched too many movies,” Mari said. “You know Japanese culture is big on dignity and privacy and restraint. Women who scream or shout during birth are considered weak. Trust me, I’m screaming on the inside.”

“You’re very brave.” Viktor handed Mari a bowl of soup. “Do you need anything?”

“Yeah, I need this baby out of me.” Mari smiled at Viktor. “It may be another few hours. With Jiahao, this part lasted four hours. It’s faster for a second baby, but I don’t know how much faster.”

 

For the next couple hours, Mari moved around a lot, with Viktor or Yuuri’s help. When the contractions started getting close together, Mari sat on the edge of her bed, focusing all her attention on breathing and trying not to squeeze the hands she was offered. “Remind me why I agreed to do this again?” Mari forced out when she was given a chance to rest.

“Because you love your brother and wanted to help him be a dad,” Yuuri said. “Thank you. I know this must be hard, but you’re doing great.”

“Hard? You think this is hard? Fighting a cold is hard. This is a real pain in the ass.” Mari looked down at herself and glared. “Literally. Ow.” She closed her eyes and focused on breathing again.

This stage felt like it was flying by to Viktor, probably because even when he wasn’t taking his turn to support Mari, it was hard to think about anything else. When the attendant announced that she was fully dilated, it caught Viktor by surprise. “Does that mean the baby’s on its way?”

“The baby’s _been_ on its way, moron,” Mari snapped as the attendant helped her get into position. “That means the baby’s almost here. Shouldn’t be more than an hour.”

It was much less than that, Mari pushing and Hiroko prepared to catch the baby. “I see the crown!” Hiroko told Mari after about fifteen minutes of pushing. “Keep going, dear, you’re almost done.”

 

When the baby was born, the attendant helped Mari lay back so they could lay the baby on her belly for cleaning and the first examination. The baby started to cry as they wiped away the fluid coating their face. “Congratulations. It’s a girl. Healthy and loud,” the doctor announced. He wrapped the baby in a blanket, gave her a hat, and looked to Mari. “Who gets to hold her first?”

“Viktor,” Yuuri said.

The doctor handed the baby to Viktor, who stared down at his daughter. “She’s perfect. Look, Yuuri, she’s perfect!” She had very little hair, but what she had was a soft brown, like her grandmother Hiroko, and she had the beautiful brown eyes. “She’s got Mama’s nose, and Papa’s chin. I’m so glad to see them.”

“I wish they could have seen her,” Yuuri said, reaching out to take the baby. “And look, she’s got your mouth. Perfect!” He handed the baby to Mari. “Thank you so much, Mari. This is incredible.”

“It is. I’m glad this went smoothly.” Mari held the baby close. “What’s her name?”

“Ryoko,” Viktor said. “Don’t even pretend to be surprised.”

 

Yuuri was given the honor of cutting Ryoko’s umbilical cord after the second Apgar check. Mari took her to attempt to feed. It took a couple tries, but eventually, Ryoko latched on. Once Ryoko stopped feeding, Mari handed her off to the attendant for weighing and identification tagging. “Don’t give her back to me until I’m done with the placenta, unless she gets hungry. Mom, Dad, you guys should go home and get some sleep.” They left, promising to bring Yuri with them when they came back. They would also take responsibility for notifying extended family about Yuuri’s daughter.

Yuuri took the baby when the doctor was ready to hand her over. Viktor went outside to where he could start making phone calls himself. First call was to Yakov and Lilia. “Hello! I know it’s quite late there, but I didn’t think you’d ever forgive me if I didn’t tell you that Ryoko was born.”

“You’re damn right about that. Congratulations. Everything good?”

“Everything’s great. She’s perfect.” Viktor gave Yakov and Lilia the details, and then hung up. Next call was to Sasha, then Chris, Misha, his other rinkmates, Phichit and the rest of the publicity team, and a few other friends whose time zones made it a good time.

 

Inside, Yuuri couldn’t take his eyes off his baby girl. “Hi, sweetheart. Welcome to the world. I’m your dad.” Yuuri paused to let that sink in for himself. He’d held babies before, but this one was different. This one was his. He could feel his anxiety poking at the back of his brain, trying to ruin this moment, but he’d been preparing for that. He was not going to be a perfect dad. No one ever was. He’d make mistakes. Just like in skating, that was okay – as long as he learned from them and did his best to do better in the future.

Yuuri hugged Ryoko tighter as she started to fuss a little. “Please don’t be hungry, your Aunt Mari just fed you, and she’s kind of in the middle of something right now.” Mari looked up and stuck out her tongue at Yuuri. “Be nice to her, all right? She did a lot of work, making you.”

Ryoko settled down, blinking sleepily, and Yuuri smiled at her. “I love you so much already. You’re going to grow up to be someone really special, I just know it. Just… don’t do it too fast, all right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ryoko: like many Japanese names, can have several meanings depending on the kanji chosen for the first syllable. -ko is a very common ending for girls' names, meaning child. Ryou, in this instance, is an obscure reading of the kanji for dragon (more commonly read as ryuu or tatsu).
> 
> Viktor and Yuuri named their baby "dragon-child".
> 
> Goobers. :D


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoko meets more of her family.
> 
> Timeline: September 21st, 2015

Yuri woke up at nearly ten o’clock. That in itself had him shook, but when he went out and didn’t see Hiroko or Toshiya, that had him seriously worried. Those two did not abandon their posts lightly. Mari, well, she had a pretty good excuse, she was seriously pregnant.

...Unless she wasn’t. That would explain a lot. Why no one had woken him up, where Hiroko and Toshiya were… he walked up to the woman sweeping the floor, who he thought might be Hiroko’s sister. “Did Mari have the baby?”

The woman smiled, and now Yuri was sure she was Hiroko's sister. Their smiles were identical. “Early this morning. Hiroko wanted to wake you up to tell you, but Toshiya said to let you sleep, they’d wake you up if necessary when they went back to the hospital. If you don’t want to wait, Minako said to call her, she hasn’t been to see the baby yet either.”

Yuri got his phone out quickly. Minako promised to be over as soon as possible, and the two of them headed into the hospital. “What was Yuuri like when he was born?” Yuri asked.

“I don’t know, not firsthand," Minako said. She noticed Yuri's shock. "I was in Russia at the time, and they wouldn’t let me take time off to go meet him. That’s when I quit the Bolshoi to come home and dance for the Japanese national ballet instead. It wasn’t just that, there were other issues, too, but that was the final straw for me. I agreed to finish out the current run, but I wasn’t going to be back. Yuuri was several months old before I met him.”

“Huh. Wow.” Yuri couldn’t imagine Yakov telling someone they couldn’t take time to go meet a baby who meant as much as Mari and Yuuri did to Minako. Maybe not immediately, depending on competition schedules, but for sure before months had passed. After all, Yakov had let him come meet this one. “What about Mari? Did you get to see her?”

“Yes, I did. You’d never believe it to see her now, but she was the most demanding baby! She cried all the time unless she was being held. Hiroko and Toshiya were both worn out. She calmed down after a few months, thankfully.”

Yuri tried to imagine Mari being a constant attention-seeker. It was not working. “You’re joking.”

“No, I’m not. I wasn’t there, but Hiroko said that Yuuri was just the opposite – he almost never cried for attention. She had to pay a lot closer attention to him.”

 

Yuuri was just outside the front door when Minako and Yuri arrived. He waved, looking exhausted. “Hi guys. Mari’s asleep, but Vitya and Ryoko should be happy to see you.”

Yuri loved the name. Perfect choice for these two. Also, another sister, sort of. Ish. He still hadn’t decided whether he wanted to be Big Brother Yuri or Uncle Yuri. On the one hand, he’d been fighting the Son of Viktuuri label more than half his life. On the other hand, he didn’t feel old enough to be an uncle, really, and he had a little brother who was now almost certain to be younger than his potential niece. It was possible Romana’s baby had come and they just hadn’t gotten around to calling, but as invested as Romana was in Yuri giving the baby a chance, it seemed unlikely.

Minako shook her head. “You two are such dorks.”

“What? It’s not like we named her some random thing, Ryoko is a perfectly nice name,” Yuuri protested. “It’s unofficial, since neither Japan nor Russia does middle names, but if you really hate Ryoko that much, you can call her Lenka. It’s short for Magdalina, after Viktor’s mother.”

“I don’t hate Ryoko. I’m just making fun of you dorks.” Minako ruffled Yuuri’s hair. “Has she had her bath yet?”

“Yeah, we’d just finished that when I came down here. My shift to call friends who wouldn’t be asleep and check in with the publicity team.”

“Ugh, publicity already?” Yuri grumbled. The kid was already a few hours old and already a celebrity? That sucked.

Yuuri smiled. “No, not yet. Viktor and I haven’t made any kind of official announcement about Ryoko’s birth, but we’ve got our publicists prepared to put one out once rumors start leaking. We’ve told friends, friends talk, rumors are bound to get out by the end of the day. Yuri, you can tell your friends whatever you want, but only share the pictures with people you trust not to leak them.”

“I want to meet her before I tell anyone anything.”

“Fair enough. Come on, then.” Yuuri led them up to the room.

 

When Yuuri poked his head in, Viktor came out into the hall, holding Ryoko. “Mari’s still asleep,” he explained. “Who wants her?”

Minako motioned for Yuri to take Ryoko first, and Yuri smiled at the tiny baby. “Hope you know how lucky you are, kiddo. You’ve got some great people looking out for you, and the coolest uncle imaginable.”

“Uncle?” Viktor said.

Yuri nodded. He'd made the decision when Ryoko met his eyes. “Just feels right.”

“Okay, good. As long as you’re not talking about Rykov,” Viktor teased.

Yuri stuck his tongue out at Viktor. Ryoko yawned and fidgeted in his arms, and he handed her over to Minako. “When do you two get to go home and get some sleep?”

“Viktor, you should go ahead and go,” Yuuri said. “You didn’t sleep at all last night, I did.”

“If Mari were awake and out here, she’d have some strong opinions on the matter,” Minako said, hugging Ryoko close. “Both of you idiots should go home and get some sleep. When Mari and Ryoko come home, you’ll need to be well-rested.”

“But…” Viktor started.

“Hush.” Minako looked down at Ryoko, who yawned again. “This little girl is sleepy, too, and Mari’s asleep, so now is a great time for you two to go home. I’ll stay here until either Hiroko or you comes back. Mari’s settled in comfortably, Ryoko will be taken care of, you need sleep, so just go.”

Yuuri reached down and took Ryoko. “Be good for your aunts, okay? Papa and I will be back soon.” He handed her over to Viktor. “Yuri, coming with us or staying here?”

“Coming with you. Just because you two have a good reason to skip practice today doesn’t mean I do. Bye, Ryoko.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While looking for something else, I came across [this](http://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E3%82%8A%E3%82%87%E3%81%86%E3%81%93.html). Yuri approves.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skating season continues and Ryoko comes home. Ish.
> 
> Timeline: September 22-26, 2015

As much as Viktor and Yuuri wanted to be at the hospital with Ryoko full-time, they couldn’t. They had a skating season coming up, which meant they needed to practice. Unlike usual, though, instead of practicing together as much as they could, they split. Viktor took early morning practice, while Yuuri took evenings, and they spent as much time at the hospital with Mari and Ryoko as they could around their job and sleep.

It didn’t take long before news of Ryoko’s birth was leaked, and the official statement announcing it ran. Messages started pouring in from fans and friends alike – mostly congratulations and well-wishes, some demands for pictures, and a couple people mocking her name. The idiots online who insisted that two dudes had no business raising a daughter at least kept it to online, instead of sending personal messages.

In the meantime, the skating season continued. The Junior Grand Prix’s next event, the Copernicus Stars, and the second event of the Challenger Series, the Nebelhorn, both started three days after Ryoko’s birth. Kenjirou had been distraught when he realized he wouldn’t get to meet Ryoko for nearly a week, because he was skating in Poland. Georgi and Mila were skating in the Nebelhorn, along with several of their other friends.

Yuri made sure to watch the junior ladies’ for Cécile, who finished in second in the short program behind a Japanese skater. After Cécile’s skate, he flipped over to the Nebelhorn for the ice dance to watch Jolanda and Masumi, and Anya and Christov. Viktor joined him to watch. “Shouldn’t you be at the hospital with Ryoko?”

“I’m going in a bit, when Yuuri wakes up. Want to come? The screen won’t be anywhere near as big, but we’ll be watching.”

Yuri thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “If I won’t be in the way, sure.”

 

When they got to the hospital, there was an immediate problem. Mari was by herself. “Where’s Ryoko?” Yuuri asked. The tests were all supposed to be done by now. Ryoko was in good health and there weren’t any problems – that he knew of. Ryoko should be here.

“Getting phototherapy for jaundice,” Mari said, calmly working on eating her dinner. “She’ll be back when she’s hungry, and they said they’re gonna set up lights in here for her then.”

“Jaundice? Is this dangerous?” Yuri demanded. “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

“It’s normal, they’re not seriously worried, if she’d gone home already they’d have told me to try putting her in sunlight before bringing her in, this is mostly precautionary to keep the problem from getting worse,” Mari said. “No freaking out needed. I thought about telling you guys so you could stay home and watch there, but I figured you wouldn’t listen anyway.”

They had time to watch some of the junior men’s skate, including both Kenjirou and Guang Hong, who finished second and first respectively. Then they flipped over to the Nebelhorn. Ryoko arrived just before Otabek’s skate, crying loudly enough that Yuuri missed the announcement. He didn’t miss Yuri cutting off a curse mid-word, and turned to see Otabek picking himself up after a fall. “How bad?”

“It was a fall, but he’ll be fine. He got the rotations for the quad salchow.”

Mari had just handed Ryoko over to Yuuri when they announced Georgi’s skate. He did very well, easily passing Jude and Seung Gil for first. Much to Yuri’s disgust, Emil struggled as well, while JJ ended up in second. “Smug Canadian jerk.”

“He’s a good skater,” Yuuri said. He offered Ryoko to Yuri.

Viktor scoffed. “He’s very talented and has a lot of big jumps, but his presentation leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve already forgotten his program.”

“Vitya, you’re not exactly a good example there,” Yuuri teased. “Your memory sucks unless it’s something you really care about.”

“True!” Viktor leaned over Yuri, petting his daughter’s face. “I hope you get your dad’s memory, not mine!”

 

Day two of skating started with the ladies’ at the Nebelhorn. Once again, Yuuri, Viktor, and Yuri went to the hospital to watch with Mari and Ryoko. “How’s Ryoko doing?”

“Good, they still want her to spend some time under the light, but it shouldn’t stop us from going home tomorrow,” Mari said. “If it weren’t for this, I think they’d let us go today. Probably would if I wanted to kick up a fuss, but one more day won’t hurt.”

Raisa skated well, and was in second heading into the second group. Mila took the lead from Madlene, and promptly lost it to Iona. Sako finished in third, and Viktor turned off the TV. “I’m so happy for Mila.”

“Who all is coming out here after the competition?” Mari asked.

“Yakov and Lilia. Georgi and Mila are going to wait for another time, they figured we wouldn’t want too many people too quickly. They’re not just coming out here to meet Ryoko, they’re going to be making sure Yuuri and Yuri and I haven’t gotten lazy!” Viktor smiled down at his baby. “You get to meet your Russian grandparents soon. They’re scary, but they’ll love you. You don’t need to be afraid of them.”

Yuri turned the TV back on, finding the Copernican Stars in time to watch Cécile skate. Viktor watched curiously. “She looks familiar.”

After a double-check to make sure that he was serious, Yuuri groaned. “She looks like her brother, Vitya. JJ? We skate against him?”

“Oh! Right. Him.” Viktor put a finger to his lips. “She’s more fun to watch.”

Cécile managed to edge out the Japanese skater for the gold, which meant she was going to Finals too. Then it was time to flip back over to the Nebelhorn for the men’s skate. Otabek improved to fourth, finishing behind Jude in third, JJ in second, and Georgi for the gold. Seung Gil and Emil took fifth and sixth.

 

The next morning, Viktor and Yuuri headed into the hospital early. Mari had called to confirm that Ryoko’s bilirubin levels were down and she was cleared to go home. On the way in, Yuuri pointed out a small crowd of reporters. “I don’t know if they know or they’re just camping figuring Ryoko’s gotta leave sometime, but we’re not getting out of here without pictures of everyone.”

Viktor rolled his eyes. “Of course not. We knew this was coming.”

Mari had the paperwork of signing out done by the time Viktor and Yuuri got to her, but Ryoko wasn’t dressed yet. “I haven’t looked, but I’m assuming there’s press out there. I know we’re going to shield her as best we can, but I figured you guys should decide what she’s wearing in the first press pictures.”

Viktor dressed Ryoko confidently in a soft green onesie and a darker green skirt, with a pair of socks. Yuuri pulled out a kitty-eared hat, knitted for them by Emiliya. “Who gets to carry her out?”

“You,” Viktor decided. “I’m bigger, I can hover better to block camera angles.”

Between Viktor on the side they knew the paparazzi would be on, Mari on the other side, and the blanket and hat, they felt mostly confident, and by the time they’d made it back to Yu-Topia, Phichit had confirmed – the best picture on the internet showed a bit of a kitty-eared hat and a sock. There was a lot of frustration online, even from the Hamsters.

They’d missed the beginning, both the junior men’s skate and the ladies’ skate at the Nebelhorn, but the ones they were interested in watching would be later anyway. They had time to settle in and introduce Ryoko to Yu-Topia. Once that was done, she was starting to show signs of hunger, so Mari took her to the kitchen to feed her while everyone else settled down by the TV.

Guang Hong took the gold in Poland, guaranteeing him a trip to the Finals, with Kenjirou taking silver and setting himself up well. In Germany, everyone skated well, but Mila skated exceptionally well, jumping Iona to take a second gold for Yakov’s rink and giving the two Japanese skaters silver and bronze. Raisa finished in fifth, behind Madlene.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More baby stuff!
> 
> Timeline: September 27-28, 2015
> 
> Warning: birth gone wrong (both mother and baby survive and are expected to suffer no long-term ill effects).

Just after dinner, Yuri’s phone rang. He checked it quickly – Romana’s number. Good enough reason to leave without offering to help with dishes yet. He walked outside. “Hello?”

“Hello, is this Yuri Plisetsky?”

The voice was completely unfamiliar, but the Italian accent was similar to Romana’s. “Yes, who’s this?” Likely a family member of Romana’s, but a name and relationship would be nice to know.

“Romana’s brother Gianmarco. Who are you?”

Huh. Romana hadn’t talked about him? “If you don’t know, why are you calling me?”

“You were on her list of people to notify once Lorenzo was born. I recognize most of the names, but I didn’t recognize yours.”

“Where the fuck is Lev?” If Romana had called, that would have made sense – she was a dumbass, but she seemed nice enough. Otherwise, it should have been Lev. Unless Lev had skipped out, finally showing his true colors.

“He’s with Lorenzo, trying to keep them both calm. There were some complications, and Romana’s in surgery, so he’s doing the dad thing and I’m handling phone calls. Now who are you?”

Yuri’s blood froze. Romana in surgery? What if she didn’t make it? What if Lorenzo got stuck with Lev as his only parent? It sounded like Romana had family who could help out, but Yuri suddenly realized he had no idea if Lev’s family was still around or if they knew about Lorenzo or Romana at all. All he knew was what he'd been told, that for whatever reason they'd cut Lev off. Lev said it was because they didn't approve of him being a skater, but Yuri thought they'd just realized what a horrible human being they'd spawned and decided to get rid of him. “Romana’s stepson, sort of. What’s wrong with her? Is she gonna be okay?”

“How can you sort of be someone’s stepson?”

Kicking someone through the phone rarely worked, but Yuri was sorely tempted to try. “Lev’s my sperm donor. He’s not family, but I agreed to give Romana and Lorenzo a chance. _What’s wrong with Romana._ ”

“The cord was wrapped around Lorenzo’s neck, and while they were trying to get it off, the placenta separated early. They had to do an emergency C-section, and now they’re trying to get the bleeding controlled to where it would be for most births. They said they expect to save her, and Lorenzo’s fine.”

“Fuck.” What else could he say? “Hope Romana makes it okay. Lorenzo’s gonna need her.”

“He does have Lev, you know. Not to mention the rest of us.”

“If you say so. Thanks for letting me know.” Yuri hung up and only restrained himself from throwing his phone when he realized he was outdoors and he had no idea where his phone might end up.

 

There was another call a few hours later. This one was a number Yuri didn’t know, but he was going to take the chance. “Hello?”

“Yuri.” He nearly hung up. Fucking Lev. “Romana’s out of surgery, she’s fine, they’re going to end up keeping her in the hospital longer than planned but other than that they don’t expect any lasting damage from this. She should make a full recovery.”

“Great. Lorenzo still doing good?”

“Lorenzo’s doing great. You look so much like your mama that I didn’t expect there to be much resemblance, but you can see it in his eyes. I’m sending a picture.”

Yuri looked at the picture. Lorenzo was cute, mostly resembling his mother, which made him smirk. Both kids got lucky, resembling their better parent. He could see what Lev meant about the eyes, though. Not the color, Lorenzo’s were brown like Romana’s, but the shape of them was very similar. While admiring the picture, he “accidentally” hung up on Lev. After a moment’s thought, his thumb slipped and he blocked the number.

 

Viktor called off practice early the next day, leaving Yuri staring at him. “Two reasons. One: Yakov will be here soon, we’re going to meet him at the train station, and you know he’s going to make us work later so if we slack off now that’s okay. Two: there’s a ceremony for Ryoko that I need to be at, and we’d like you to come to.”

“A ceremony…? What for?”

“Get Yuuri to explain it to you, it’s a Japanese thing and he’s more likely to explain it properly. It’s not a big deal, you don’t have to dress up for it or anything, it’s just welcoming Ryoko to the family and then Hiroko and Toshiya made a special lunch.”

They met Yakov and Lilia at the train station, and Yuuri explained the ceremony on the way home. “It’s basically a naming ceremony. We’d already chosen Ryoko’s name, but it’s still tradition, and it’s kind of a nice bonding time for family. The ceremony itself, Viktor and I will write her name on a scroll. We’ve already got her handprints and footprints on it, along with her time and date of birth, so it’s just adding the names.”

“Names?” Yakov asked.

“Her legal Japanese name in kanji, her legal Russian name in Cyrillic, and then katakana and English letters including her unofficial middle name. Traditionally it would just be the kanji, but traditionally, the kid wouldn’t have a Russian name, so we’re doing it our way. Then we eat lunch, and then we can go to the rink so you can yell at us whenever you’re ready.”

Ryoko looked beautiful in her simple white gown. Viktor held Ryoko to “watch” while Yuuri wrote her name in kanji and katakana, and then Yuuri took her to watch while Viktor wrote the Cyrillic and English versions. Once it was finished, Yuuri handed the scroll to Mari, who hung it on the wall beside the scrolls with her name and Yuuri’s.

 

After Yakov put his three skaters through the hell of making sure they’d been keeping up with their practice, there was one last thing to do – call Nika and wish him a happy birthday. They got to show off Ryoko during the call, and they’d left presents for Nika to open while they were on Skype with him.

“You’re not in school yet, are you?” Yuri asked.

“Preschool! It’s fun! We play games and do art and sing songs. Why? Didn’t you do preschool?”

“No, Mama couldn’t afford it. I never went to a real school.” By the time he was supposed to start, he was skating with Yakov, and even though it was supposed to be temporary at that point, it hadn’t occurred to anyone to get him enrolled in school. “When do you start school?”

“Maybe next year, possibly the year after. Mama and Papa haven’t decided yet.” Nika grinned. “I can’t wait! School sounds fun!”

“Huh.” It had never sounded fun to Yuri, but he wasn’t about to squash Nika’s hopes, especially considering he'd never been. Now he found himself wondering why the hell Natasha was in school so early. She wasn’t that much older than Nika or the triplets, and they were all in preschool this year. America must be weird that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found [Ryoko's Halloween costume.](https://www.target.com/p/toddler-kids-swaddle-wings-darling-dragon-costume-0-3m/-/A-52517156?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&CPNG=PLA_Seasonal+Shopping&adgroup=SC_Seasonal&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9028494&gclid=CjwKCAjw54fdBRBbEiwAW28S9vr2FbZixMQQ6lThSKj4nbuN94Haafv2eoyX0Mp7o_7rHx8UY1ormRoCAqcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Competitions continue!
> 
> Timeline: early October, 2015

Yuuko and Takeshi left the next day, taking their triplets to Bratislava with them for Yuuko’s competition. The Junior Grand Prix also had its next event, which Yuri was mostly interested in to see what would happen with Denis, the silver medalist from Slovakia. Two other skaters also came in with silver medals, but since Denis had beaten Richard and Richard had a gold, he was Yuri’s pick to win.

Skating started on the 1st with Yuuko’s competition. Her 63 was well ahead of anyone else in the competition so far, although Kei’s 61 was close. There were several scores in the 50s, and then Ling finished the skate off with a 61.

They were followed by the men, while the junior ladies were starting in Spain. Viktor set up his laptop so they could watch whichever one was more important at the time. First up for the men were Su and Bin, skating back to back. Both did well, scoring in the low 80s. Then they switched their attention to the ladies’, with Mikayla, the American skater who beat Cécile in Colorado, putting up a huge score. Christophe took the lead from Bin, getting over 90, and Masaki got right behind Su at the 80 mark. No one else beat 80, and Yuri took a great satisfaction in Saviliy ending up in seventh. In the ladies’, only one skater got close to Mikayla, a Japanese girl named Sanako. Denis won the junior men’s, followed by Mareks and Moises, while Bratislava ended with Salomat and Stas taking second in the pairs.

 

October 2nd was Mari’s birthday, so they offered to skip the skating to do something with her if she wanted. Mari declined – all she really wanted to do was sleep. Ryoko was still getting fed too often for Mari to get much sleep in one stretch, but she was getting better. “I really don’t care about my birthday. Next year, that one might be worth making a big deal of, depends what’s happening with skating, but this year? Meh. Let’s watch the skating, see if Sanako can take gold and Yuri’s stepbrother can medal.”

“Mari…” Viktor started.

Mari smiled at him. “Viktor, I mean it. I haven’t cared about my birthday since I turned eighteen. Ask anyone. Mom’s cooking my favorite food, you guys got me some great presents, we’re fine.” Yuuri agreed, and he should know, so Viktor gave in and let Mari have her quiet day of mostly sleeping. Sanako didn’t manage to overtake Mikayla, but still earned her trip to the Grand Prix Finals. Salomat and Stas did earn the bronze medal.

 

Skating on the 3rd started with the senior ladies. The skaters anyone in Hasetsu cared about were the last ones. Ling held on for bronze, while Kei overtook Yuuko for gold, giving Yuuko silver after a good performance marred by a weak ending. “I hope Yuuko’s okay,” Yuuri said. “I couldn’t tell if that was just bad luck, she got tired, or she’s hurt.”

“It looked more like tiredness than injury, but bad luck is certainly a possibility,” Viktor offered. “I don’t think she’s hurt. Sick, maybe?”

Once again, they would have to split their attention to watch both the junior men’s skate in Spain and the senior men’s skate in Bratislava. This time, there was more likelihood of overlap – the junior men would start a little earlier, but there were more of them, and all the skaters the Hasetsu group knew were at the end of their skates. Saviliy dropped to eighth, to Yuri’s great delight, while Masaki passed Su to take the bronze, with Bin silver and Chris gold. Denis won the junior men’s gold, sending him to the finals for a rematch with Yuri. Mareks’ silver gave him a chance, while Moises was likely out after a bronze.

 

The Nishigoris got home a couple days laters, and Yuuko went straight to bed. Coach Nishigori came over. “Yuuko has the flu, Lutz is the worst but all three of the girls are showing symptoms, and Takeshi thinks it’s best if he doesn’t come over just in case. He’d hate to see Ryoko get sick when she’s only two weeks old.”

“Much appreciated!” Viktor said. “I would too!”

“I take it symptoms were starting to set in during the free skate, and that’s why she got so tired at the end there?” Yuuri said.

“That’s part of it, for sure. Yuuko’s said she doesn’t quite feel like her heart’s in competition the way it has been, and I’ve noticed at practices that she’s more willing to call it a day than she has been in the past. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is her last year to compete.”

Between ladies tending to retire earlier than men and Yuuko being two years older than him, Yuuri really shouldn’t be surprised. Retirement for him was something that was still, hopefully, well into the future, but Viktor and Georgi were starting to get questions about it, and Yuuri should have realized that it was getting to be time to start thinking about Yuuko retiring. He was going to miss her, but if she wanted to retire, then she should. No sense pushing skating until she hated it, especially if the girls were considering being skaters. “I’m sorry to hear that. Was she upset about losing to Kei?”

“No, not really. I mean, not more than I would expect her to be at not winning gold, it’s not like losing to someone who isn’t a great skater,” Nishigori said. “Kei is the future of Japanese ladies’ skating, and if Yuuko’s retiring, losing to Kei is somewhat comforting, I would think. It’s not like at Yakov’s rink, where you guys are so close with each other that it’s like watching your brother or your child take your place, but it’s still a good thing.”

"Eventually, Yuri will take my place as Russia's best skater, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy to watch," Viktor said. "I just hope I can be as gracious about it as Misha was when I took over for him."


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More skating. Yuri meets Lorenzo.
> 
> Timeline: October 2015

Yakov had to leave after a few more days, to meet up with Georgi and Mila in Espoo. The last competition of the Junior Grand Prix would be the same weekend, and with Kenjirou competing, Hasetsu was excited to watch. Yuri was also eager to watch for Klaus, to see how he did. However, he was leaving as well, going to Italy with Lilia to meet Lorenzo.

The Hamsters were starting to get impatient for pictures of Ryoko. Yuuri and Viktor ignored it as much as possible. Viktor was concerned by the fact that Mari never seemed to take Ryoko anywhere, choosing to stay home herself except for very short trips that she could do without bringing Ryoko. “I know we have plans for the first pictures, but if something leaks, it leaks.”

“It’s not because of leaks,” Mari said. “It’s just a thing. Very young babies and their mothers are expected to stay at home for the first few months. One of the things I love about working here is that I live here too, so I can still work and stay home with my baby. Not everyone gets that. How’s Phichit holding up? He’s skating this weekend.”

“He’s fine. He loves this kind of thing.” Viktor couldn’t help the grin at Phichit managing the Hamsters with the Hamsters in rebellion – they wanted the pictures of Ryoko, too. He really was doing an amazing job. “It does get a little stressful sometimes, but he says the plan more than makes up for it.”

 

Day one of skating for the weekend was junior men and women in Croatia. Klaus had somehow ended up skating first, and he did very well, easily setting a very high bar for anyone else. Kenjirou skated ninth, and he cleared the bar easily to take over the lead. Those two remained on top at the end of the competition, making Hasetsu very happy with the results. Japan’s skater Sumie took the top spot in the junior ladies’ skate.

 

Finlandia kicked off with ice dance and pairs. Ice dance was mildly interesting, since Japan’s top pair was skating, but really, no one cared. Also important was the junior men’s free skate in Croatia, won by Klaus to give him his first trip to the Junior Grand Prix Finals. Minami, less than a point behind, got in as well, with his high score giving him the tiebreaker over the other skater with two silvers, and Richard, with his gold and bronze, took the other spot. Yuri got the chance to watch after his flight landed in Florence. He would get the chance to see Lorenzo in the morning; for now, he was sleeping and watching skating.

 

Romana was still somewhat shaky when she opened the door to let Yuri and Lilia in. “I’m glad you came, Yuri. Please, come in.”

“Thanks.” He followed Romana to where Lorenzo was being held by a young man. 

“This is my brother, Gianmarco, he’s the one who called you to tell you Lorenzo was born. Gianmarco, this is Yuri Plisetsky, Lorenzo’s big brother.”

“Hi.” Yuri came closer, reaching out a hand to pat Lorenzo’s head. “Hi, Lorenzo. I’m Yuri.”

Gianmarco handed Lorenzo to Yuri. “It’s nice to meet you in person. You don’t much look like your dad.”

“Thankfully. Lorenzo, either. Lucky kid.” Yuri cuddled Lorenzo, who yawned and blinked. “He’s cute. What language do you want me to speak to him?”

“Oh, you don’t speak Italian, do you?”

“Not much.” He’d picked up a few words from listening to Yuuri practicing for school, but he hadn’t really paid much attention – something he regretted now, if Lorenzo was going to be monolingual. “Russian and English fluently, enough Japanese that I don’t need Yuuri’s help to get around there, some French thanks to ballet and Ryoko.”

“Russian, I suppose. He’s half-Russian, he should speak it, and he’ll likely learn English in school. I don’t know that there’s much point to him learning French or Japanese.”

“You never know, they might be useful to him someday.” Yuri looked down at Lorenzo and smiled as he stretched his legs.

Lilia looked around. “Where’s Lev? I assume Lev will be speaking Russian to Lorenzo?”

“Maybe, we hadn’t really thought about it, there’s time before he starts talking, right?” Romana tried to hide a yawn. “Lev thought that now was the best time for him to go run some errands – grocery shopping, picking up my prescriptions, things like that. I tried to tell him you two were on your way, but he insisted that he had to go now.”

“There’s time but if you want him to speak both languages you should get him used to hearing them now, Yuuri says. Lev speaks Italian?”

“Of course. We speak Italian to each other.”

 

Back at the hotel to watch skating, Lilia watched Yuri thoughtfully. Georgi had the bad luck to draw first in the men’s short program. It didn’t seem to affect him much, as he set a high mark for the others to chase. Going into the final group, only Phichit had gotten within twenty points of him, but several of the best skaters were still coming. Otabek beat Phichit by two points, while Seung Gil ended up three behind Phichit. JJ was the final skater. Lilia raised an eyebrow as they watched JJ land a quad Lutz. “It looks like he’s all-in this year. I wonder what’s driving him?”

Yuri made a face. “He sucks. Or he’s skating well to impress his soulmate. One of the two.”

Mila and Cathy both skated early in the ladies’ short program, and Mila finished very close to Cathy, easily within catching distance. Germany’s Madlene and Canada’s Miriam were neck and neck in third and fourth. Ice dance was mostly ignorable, although they did check later and celebrate Japan’s bronze medal. Meanwhile, in Croatia, Sumie won to earn a trip to the Grand Prix Finals along with Cécile, Mikayla, two other Japanese skaters, and a Russian skater.

“Well? What do you think of your brother?” Lilia asked once they turned off the TV.

“I think he’s a baby. Babies are boring. They don’t do much but eat, shit, and sleep.” He rolled his eyes at Lilia’s disapproving face. “Little kids are awesome, but until they’re a little more independent, they’re _boring_. Quit looking at me like that, you know I’m right.”

“Ryoko is boring?”

“Yes? She’s cute and I know Viktor and Yuuri are nuts about her, but she’s boring!” Lorenzo was a little less boring, in that Yuri had gotten to feed him. “What do you think about Lev not being there?”

“I think Lev was avoiding you. Whether that’s to make you more comfortable since he knows you’re not in his presence, or to upset you, I can’t say. I’m just happy we didn’t have to decide whether to play nice.”

 

Men went first on the final day of skating. There was a bit of shakeup in the first two groups, with the most notable being a fifteen-year-old Dutch skater jumping up to sixth. The big news out of the final group was JJ managing to pass Georgi to take the gold, giving Georgi silver. Yuri was pissed – he thought Georgi’s performance score was far too low. In the ladies’, Mila and Madlene both put forth strong enough performances to drop Cathy to bronze, with Madlene taking silver and Mila gold.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the week between the Junior Grand Prix and the senior Grand Prix, Ryoko takes over figure skating news.
> 
> Timeline: October 2015

After the competition, Yakov went back to Saint Petersburg with Georgi and Mila. Phichit, instead of going straight back to Detroit, came out to Hasetsu. “Are you sure you want to do this now? She’s only three weeks old…”

“And you’ve seen our fans getting more and more rabid. Thankfully Japanese custom means staying indoors at first, but I don’t want Mari and Ryoko getting killed when they’re on their way to the doctor for the one-month checkup.” Yuuri winked. “Besides, when else is Celestino going to let you come out here? We want a photographer we can trust to take the first official baby pictures, and that’s you.”

“Ciao Ciao would’ve let me come after the NHK, I’m not making Finals this year,” Phichit said. “Next year!”

“But Viktor and I should, and at some point, Yakov is going to make us come back to Saint Petersburg. When that is depends on how well we’re doing… if he’s not happy with what he sees at the NHK, we may not be allowed to come, and it just seems wrong doing our baby’s first photo shoot without being present for it.” Yuuri picked up Ryoko and cuddled her. “What do you want to do with her?”

“I brought a present. I know Halloween’s not really a thing in Japan or Russia, but it’s fun, and it’s a good excuse for this.” Phichit reached for his bag and pulled out a baby dragon costume. “I hope it fits her.”

“I’ll be right back!” Viktor hopped up and dashed out of the room, leaving Yuuri to change Ryoko’s outfit.

Phichit took several shots of Ryoko posing without clothes before they dressed her up. By the time they were done, Viktor had returned with the hoard of gold medals he and Yuuri had won over the years, which he spread out in her crib. “A dragon needs a hoard, right? We happen to have a lot of gold.”

“You were planning this,” Phichit said. “You had to be.”

“Our little dragon with her hoard? Yes, we were,” Viktor said, completely unashamed of himself. “The dragon costume was not planned but plays into it perfectly!”

Ryoko behaved perfectly through the photoshoot, except when she needed a break for feeding and burping. In addition to the dragon pictures, they added pictures of Ryoko with Viktor, with Yuuri, and with both parents, changing outfits between each set of pictures. Phichit spent the rest of the day going through pictures and picking the best ones to create a page for her on the Hamsters’ website. He showed it to Viktor and Yuuri the next day for approval, which was granted quickly. “I’ll set it up so Hamsters get a period of theoretically exclusive access, but we know leaks will happen, and then it will go public on Sunday after the competition. Sound good?”

“Sounds good!” Viktor said. “Thank you, Phichit, you are amazing.”

 

Yuuko recovered from her flu in time to make her next competition, although she’d barely been practicing and she already knew her skating wouldn’t be up to her usual standards. She’d considered dropping out to focus on the Grand Prix, but she talked herself out of it. “If this is going to be my last year, I should probably make every competition I can.”

“It’s up to you, but I don’t think anyone would judge you for dropping out. I know Misha skipped a few competitions, and he didn’t have the Challenger Series.”

“He was fighting injuries,” Yuuko said. “I’m not hurt.”

“No, but you’re recovering from sickness, and if you relapse it could mess you up for the Cup of China,” Yuuri said. “I’d compete, but you don’t have to. I’m sure the JSF would understand.”

“Not necessarily. Sako and Iona are in this one too, and they’re looking forward to an all-Japanese podium. Raisa’s the only one who’s likely to beat one of us, unless we mess up.” Yuuko shrugged and wrapped her sweater a little tighter around herself. “Speaking of this being my last year, I know you two are planning on having more kids, and with Mari planning one for herself, just let me know if you want me to have one for you.”

“You and Takeshi don’t want more of your own?”

Takeshi shook his head. “We’re not going to go out of our way either way, unless it’s for something like if Yuuko’s pregnant with mine she can’t have yours and you want her to have one. If more come, they come, if they don’t, they don’t. What would be hilarious is if Yuuko has a boy for the two of you and then never gets pregnant again or only has girls.”

Yuuri and Viktor exchanged glances. “Why would that be so funny?”

Yuuko giggled. “The look on my mom’s face when I have a son that isn’t Takeshi’s and then don’t have one of Takeshi’s. Come on, I would love that.”

“Well, we’ll keep that in mind. We haven’t started thinking about a second kid yet… it’s not as big a deal as the first one. You won’t have quite as much media hoopla to go through, at least.”

Yuuri groaned. “Of course, if you carry a kid for us, it’ll drag up the old you’re my real soulmate bullshit. Retire, have a child, even if we end up with Viktor being the biological father they’ll still insist that it’s my kid somehow.”

 

Yuuko ended up going, taking Takeshi and the triplets with her. Yuri hadn’t come back, going back to Russia after meeting Lorenzo. It was oddly quiet around as they watched the skating, which began with the men’s short program. The group was short on star power, as most of the big names were resting up for the Grand Prix, but there were some good skaters competing, including Jude, Togai, and Su. Representing Russia were Vadim, Saviliy, and Yulian, who managed to place sixth, seventh, and eighth. Ice dance had Anya and Christov, who finished first for the day, and Lina and Tima, who finished second behind a Canadian pair.

Hamster squee was starting to pour in, and Yuuri couldn’t help feeling sorry for Jude, Togai, and the Russian skaters, who spent half their interviews getting questions about Ryoko – who they hadn’t even seen yet – instead of their skating. Jude and Anya had at least seen the unofficial pictures Viktor and Yuuri had shared with their friends. Phichit reached out to everyone competing with temporary Hamster credentials so they could get in to see the pictures.

Ladies kicked off the second day. Yuuko didn’t look good in the short program, ending up finishing in fourth for the day behind Iona, Sako, and Raisa. Nothing looked bad, she’d just downgraded two of her jumps. In her interview, she mentioned the flu she’d fought off between competitions, and spent the rest of the time talking about Ryoko.

Jude won the men’s skate, followed by Togai and Su. Saviliy finished last among the Russians. Anya and Christov held on for Russia’s first medal, gold in ice dance.

Yuuko’s free skate was much better than her short program or her free skate from Bratislava, good enough to move her up to win silver. Iona took the gold, Raisa the bronze, while Sako dropped out of the medals by only a few tenths of a point. Lina and Tima won gold in the pairs, with Salomat and Stas taking the bronze again.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skate America and Baby Drama
> 
> Timeline: October 2015

When Phichit opened up the page of Ryoko’s baby pictures, the website melted. There was a lot of love for the dragon costume, as well as a shot of Ryoko in a fluffy yellow dress and kitty-eared beanie being held by Yuuri with Viktor’s arms around the both of them. There was some pushback over a shot of Ryoko in a pale blue onesie decorated with trucks – apparently, trucks were for boys, and this was taken as proof that either Viktor and Yuuri had wanted a boy and were trying to force Ryoko to be one, or they were just too dumb to know.

“Or Ryoko is a baby and the onesie is cute and why can’t girls wear trucks?” Viktor scoffed. “I’d have loved to see what they had to say about our son being dressed in the yellow dress.”

“A second kid is going to be fun, too… in addition to the boys’ clothes vs. girls’ clothes thing, there’s also going to be the issue of hand-me-downs.” Yuuri hugged Viktor tight. “Yes, I know, the truck onesie is a hand-me-down from Jiahao, but no one knows that.”

“Someone might track it down. Bin knows!” Viktor hugged back, though. “I don’t get it. Yes, we could afford completely separate wardrobes for our kids, but why bother? Why would we get criticism for it?”

“Because people just love to stick their nose in other people’s parenting choices,” Mari said. “No matter what you do, you’re doing it wrong.”

“Just ignore it as much as you can,” Minako agreed. “It’s a much bigger scale, and it’s strangers, not people you know, but it’s really not much difference than raising a baby in a small town. Everyone knows what you’re doing wrong and won’t hesitate to tell you. Focus your anger on the idiots saying she’s funny-looking or ugly, she’ll get that all her life because she won’t look how people think she should and it’s never going to stop.”

 

Fortunately, Skate America was able to take some attention away from Ryoko’s pictures before Viktor could do more than threaten to hunt down the people who made fun of her looks or criticized her trucks. Viktor and Yuuri didn’t watch the pair or ice dance, but they made sure to be tuned in as soon as the ladies started. Madlene started things off with a very good score, and Phichit’s rinkmate Amy skated a personal best that gave her a shot at being in the second group on day 2. Skye’s short program was beautiful, and put her in the lead, finishing just ahead of Kei.

Leo kicked things off for the men’s skates, and he struggled a bit, though 78 was still a very good score, especially considering his lack of a quad. Viktor was smiling the whole time he watched Leo. “His skating is beautiful, and I very much hope to see him do amazing things in the near future. He’s going to be great.”

Emil became the first skater to break 80, and immediately after him, Sachio became the first over 85. Georgi got up to 88, with Christophe hot on his heels at 87. Those four finished as the top four, with Masaki and Lukas filling out the final group, and Leo in eighth – though only two points below Emil in fourth.

This time, the skaters were much better prepared to discuss Ryoko, and the reporters were better behaved about at least pretending to care about the Grand Prix, too. Christophe called after finishing his interview. “First question was if you two had remembered to tell me about Ryoko being born. I thought you might like to know.”

“That’s hilarious. What did you tell them?” Viktor asked.

“That while you might be irresponsible, there was no way Yuuri was leaving this one in your hands and if he didn’t see a call to me when he checked your phone, he’d call me himself.”

“Why would Yuuri be checking my phone…?” Viktor could not understand. They didn’t go on each other’s phones.

“To see who you’d already called, so he’d know who he had to call when it was his turn? Don’t be an idiot. They wanted to know what I thought of the truck.”

“Oh, what did you tell him?” Yuuri asked.

Chris grinned. “I told them that if my mother’s baby photos of me are anything to go by, my absolute favorite outfit when I was a boy was a purple onesie covered with bright pink and white flowers. I don’t seem to have turned out to be a girl, so it’s entirely possible there’s no connection between what you wear as a baby and your gender identity as an adult and Ryoko looked adorable in it. Peng Lei said something about it looking familiar, any idea what that’s about?”

“Oh fun, the hand-me-down discourse is starting after all!” Viktor said. “Mari kept a lot of Jiahao’s clothes and is putting them on Ryoko.”

“I am so glad you’re skating next week,” Chris said. “Maybe once they’ve talked to you, the stories can die and Ryoko can just be a normal baby for a while.”

“It’ll probably last another week, and I can’t wait for the questions about how I feel about Viktor gallivanting off and leaving me at home with our baby,” Yuuri said. “I won’t be in Canada, and the story won’t die until they’ve talked to both of us.”

 

America won both pairs and ice dance, which had to have them happy. In the ladies’ skate, Alena overtook Amy for sixth for Russia, which wasn’t too bad. Skye held on for gold by just a few tenths over Kei, with Madlene taking an easy bronze. Phichit texted about how proud he was of Amy, and he was going to be cheering for her in the rematch with Alena in Russia.

Leo skated incredibly well, pushing himself way up in the standings. Emil and Masaki made a couple of mistakes, which ended up dropping them below Leo. Sachio beat him, and Christophe delivered a stunning performance. Georgi, on the other hand, struggled from the moment the music started. He fell on a quad toe loop, stumbled in his step sequence, and fell again on a triple Lutz. It wasn’t going to be a horrible score, but he was not going to beat Chris or Sachio. As it happened, he didn’t beat Leo, either, giving Leo his first senior Grand Prix medal.

Viktor and Yuuri watched the interview with bated breath. There had to be an explanation. Unfortunately, the first few questions were once again about Ryoko. Georgi answered them in terse sentence fragments, which wasn’t like him. By the time they finally got around to asking about Georgi’s skating, he was already so cranky he kept those answers short as well. “Bad day. I’ll do better in Moscow.”

Texts to Georgi and Yakov went unanswered, but Yuri called back. “He asked Anya how much longer she planned to skate. She wouldn’t commit to anything and said that it doesn’t matter because she doesn’t want kids. Now they’re fighting, and I’m so not looking forward to Yakov’s yelling when they get back here. I’m no relationship expert, but isn’t that something they could have figured out was gonna be a problem years ago? It’s not like they’re soulmates.”

“You’d think, but it’s possible that Anya’s changed her mind recently, or Georgi hoped she’d change her mind by the time she retired,” Viktor said. “Either way, they’re dumb. I’m happy for Leo, though! Good for him!”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skate Canada. Viktor once again marvels as the media finds a new way to be awful.
> 
> Timeline: end of October 2015

Viktor used to think he had it hard leaving Yuuri when he had to go somewhere. Now he knew that was easy. Leaving Ryoko? That was hard. He sent a mental apology to Misha for teasing him about moping over leaving Nika. He understood now. Whether it would be worse to have Yuuri with him, Viktor didn’t know. Probably. Yes, it was good to know that Yuuri was with Ryoko, and if he had Yuuri with him, Yuuri might well feed off his sadness about missing Ryoko and just make it so much worse for the both of them – but then again, they could comfort and distract each other.

The Challenger Series news was at least a mild distraction during the flight. Bin and Phichit had both skated in Sofia the week before, earning gold and silver, respectively, while Jolanda and Masumi took gold in the ice dance. This week, Masaki, Togai, and Leo led the men’s after the short program.

A better distraction jumped on his back at the hotel. “Hello, Sasha! How are things going to get you to Rio?”

“As long as I stay healthy, I should be there!” Sasha said. “I hope you and Yuuri will be able to come, but with a baby, I won’t blame you if you don’t make it.”

“We’ll see! Hello, Rykov, how are you?”

“Looking forward to the competition. Have Yakov and Yuri found you yet?”

Viktor blinked. “Yuri?”

“Russian skater, obsessed with cats, if neither you or Georgi retire the reason I’m probably never going to be an Olympian?”

“Don’t give up hope! Even if you don’t make it in 2018, you can still make 2022!” Viktor said. “I know who Yuri is. Why is he here?”

“Because you and Stas and Beka are competing, it’s Beka’s birthday, and I still have almost a month before I compete again,” Yuri said. “There you are. Yakov’s already been asked twice if you either forgot that you had a competition or decided to drop out and stay home with Ryoko.”

Viktor hugged Yuri, much to Yuri’s annoyance. “Hi Yuri! We’ve missed you!”

“Yeah, whatever. Come on, Yakov wants to yell at you.”

“It is not my fault that this is when the flight arrived,” Viktor protested. “It’s not even that late. I bet I’m not even the last one here.”

“You’re not. Still. I’m not getting yelled at by Yakov over this.” Yuri turned and walked off, and Viktor chose to follow.

 

Ice dance kicked off the skating, followed by the ladies. The skating started off very strong with Emily Landon getting close to 65. Cathy got closest in the first group, but she wasn’t even over 60. Iona took a nice big lead, breaking 70 to kick off the second group, but Viktor couldn’t stay to watch any of the rest of it live as he needed to go get ready to skate.

“You’re ready, aren’t you?” Yakov said. “You looked good in practice, but…”

“My head will be on the ice,” Viktor promised. “This is going to be fun, skating about loss. I can’t wait to read the theories!”

Iona finished first in the ladies’ skate, then Emily, Sako, and Cathy. Rykov was the only skater in the first group of the men’s that Viktor cared enough about to check on, and he had the lead when Viktor stepped up to skate.

His program was lower difficulty than in recent years, only one quad, with the plan to go up to a second quad later in the season if he needed to. For now, it looked like he didn’t, so he took it easy and thought about his parents as he skated. He wished they could have met Yuuri and Ryoko. They would have loved their granddaughter. Even with the lower difficulty, he still made a couple mistakes, losing momentum in his combo spin so he just barely got the rotations in and touching a hand down on a hop in the step sequence. Yakov didn’t take it easy on him, and his final score of 87 was disappointing. He hadn’t expected to be anywhere near 100, but he’d hoped to be over 90.

Otabek skated very well, beating Rykov and earning an 80, while Seung Gil was in the high seventies. Michele and JJ also both got 80s, so second through fourth place were currently separated by less than half a point.

Viktor didn’t bother to stick around to watch the pairs – Yuri would let him know how Salomat and Stas did, and in the meantime, the media was probably causing traffic hazards as they salivated over the upcoming interview.

“Viktor! You’ve been a father for five weeks now, how do you feel you’re settling in?”

“It’s been amazing! It’s a great deal of work, of course, but hard work is nothing to be afraid of. Ryoko is an amazing baby, as I understand many of the people who have visited her website have agreed, so it’s all been worth it.”

“Is Yuri Plisetsky upset about losing his place as your child to your actual child?”

“Yuri hasn’t lost his place as our child, as he never was our child. We see him as a little brother, and he’s chosen to be Uncle Yuri to Ryoko. So, no, he’s not upset at all. If I had to guess, I would think he’s rather pleased to see the last of that particular rumor!” Viktor winked.

“You timed the photoshoot for after he’d gone back to Russia… why?”

“Because that’s when Phichit could get out to Japan to take the pictures. As Yuuri’s best friend and one of our most fervent supporters, we wanted to give him that opportunity. Yuri understood. We didn’t include Mari in the shoot.”

“Some people have criticized your choice of clothing for Ryoko’s photo shoot. Would you like to address that?”

“I would, but I don’t think I’ll change anyone’s mind about girls in truck onesies or boys in frilly dresses.”

“You see no problem with that?”

“No. Ryoko is a baby. She doesn’t care what she’s dressed in as long as she’s not too hot or too cold.”

“There’s a rumor going around China that Ryoko is wearing clothes that used to be Cao Jiahao’s. Is there any truth to that?”

“Mari carried and gave birth to both Jiahao and Ryoko. Bin wasn’t planning on having another child, so there was no need for him to take the clothes that Jiahao outgrew with them when they went home to China. There’s no reason Ryoko shouldn’t wear them.”

“Are you planning more kids?”

“We are. At least one more, likely two. I’m sure there will be people who say I’m lying, but neither Yuuri nor I care whether we have a son or another daughter for the next one. We are perfectly happy to take whoever comes along.”

 

Yuri rolled his eyes at the questions about him. “There is no way I’m lucky enough to stop hearing all about how I’m your son. It’s just not gonna happen.”

“No, probably not, but we can try. How did Stas do?”

“He and Salomat are in third. Leo took bronze at the Ice Challenge, so that’s good. If Beka and Michele can hold off JJ tomorrow, it’ll be a good weekend.”

 

Viktor showed up to the rink the next day right when he was due to get ready and warmed up, having ignored ice dance altogether. Yakov glared at him, and Viktor just grinned. “I’m taking advantage of not having a baby around to have a nice nap! Well-rested, see? It’s good for me!”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“As long as I’m ready to skate, who cares what other adjectives I am?” Viktor winked and got dressed. The pink jacket made him laugh a little – he could hear people’s heads exploding at what was clearly a response to people’s horror over Ryoko’s truck. Never mind that he’d designed and commissioned the costume months before Ryoko was born.

Iona and Sako won gold and silver for Japan’s ladies, with Emily hanging on to keep a medal against Cathy’s charge. Otabek’s free skate ended up being the weakest of the ones, leaving him out of the medals unless Viktor screwed up very badly. Yuri was not going to be happy, especially as JJ ended up beating Michele to have the lead when Viktor took the ice.

Viktor started things off big, getting his three quads out of the way early. This skate went much more smoothly, and though he was tired when he finished, he was eager to see the score. Yakov was much happier with him, too, especially when the 191 popped up. His overall 278 was very close to his overall score from his first qualifier last year – he’d heard some talk about him taking it easy on the competition, and this should put that to rest.

That’s what he expected to talk about in his interview, hoping that they’d gotten enough talk about Ryoko the day before. Instead, the first question was so stupid Viktor could not believe he’d heard it right. “Does the pink coat mean that you’re the mom? We’d all assumed it would be Yuuri, but with you choosing pink…”

At least Viktor could pick a place to start that he didn’t have to have his brain working for. Unfortunately, he could not figure out where to go from there. “I like pink. I’ve worn pink costumes before. It suits me. What in the world do you mean, I’m ‘the mom’?”

“Well, you know, you and Yuuri are raising a child together, one of you…”

Ice dripped from Viktor’s voice. “Yuuri is Ryoko’s dad. I’m Ryoko’s papa. Neither of us is ‘the mom.’ If Ryoko has something she would prefer to go to a woman about, she has Lilia, Mila, Mari, Sasha, Yuuko, Minako, Yuuri’s mother, Misha’s wife Emiliya, and likely many of our other friends she can go to. She does not need a parent she identifies as ‘the mom’. Being a parent is a gender-neutral job.”

“But which of you is going to be the primary caretaker?”

“We will split caretaking as evenly as possible without forcing things for the sake of balance. If you can’t get your head around the idea of two parents being partners instead of the stereotypical model of breadwinner and homemaker-childminder, that’s your problem, not ours.” Viktor walked away before he could say something awful.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fallout. Viktor goes home.
> 
> Timeline: early November 2015

The fallout was swift, with all of Viktor’s friends and most of his and Yuuri’s fans coming to his swift and vehemous defense. There were a few shitheads, but Viktor magnanimously decided to ignore those. It helped that Yuuri and Mari found it funny. It also helped that all he had left to skate here was the exhibition, and then he’d be back with Yuuri and Ryoko – although Ryoko for a very short time before he and Yuuri would leave for the Cup of China.

Yakov had given in on “Baby One More Time” with very little argument, although he made sarcastic comments any time he saw Viktor practicing it, and Viktor had a great time skating it. Afterward, it was out with Sasha, Rykov, Emily, Michele, Sara, and some of the others who tagged along. Yuri took off with Otabek to go celebrate his birthday a day late – less crowding at the cool places with it not being Halloween.

When he got the early morning call from Yuri, he just assumed it was because JJ and Isabella had tagged along and while Yuri had held his tongue to avoid ruining his best friend’s birthday. He was wrong. “You’re gonna hear some stupid rumors. Nothing you haven’t heard before, but still stupid.”

“Lev, Otabek, or soulmate?” Lev was the one most likely to have Yuri upset, soulmate to have him calling Viktor to warn him, and Otabek just because Viktor knew he was in town and Yuri had been with him the night before.

“Otabek and soulmate. Someone got a picture of us after some asshole nearly knocked me over and Beka caught me and from the angle it looks like we’re about to kiss. Didn’t help that we were out with Isabella and her idiot soulmate so it looks like a double date instead of Beka celebrating his birthday with some of his best friends.”

“Okay, I can understand where the rumors are coming from, but not what’s got you upset about them enough to call me this early after a night out celebrating. If you’re worried about getting a lecture about saving the kissing for your soulmate…”

“Nah, that’s not it. It would be annoying, especially since I _didn’t_ kiss him, so don’t do it, but I can deal with you going on your soulmate rants. It’s just that people are saying shitty things about Beka because he’s seventeen now and I’m fourteen. Pisses me off.”

“Not much you can do about it. You’ll recall I got that quite a bit, and that was with Yuuri being my soulmate and us getting judged by idiots for not kissing, too. When’s the next time you’re likely to see each other? You’re not planning to go to Bordeaux, are you?”

“No, so probably not until Four Continents, if Yakov lets me go. Since he’s a long shot for Finals now, and if he doesn’t make it, he won’t come so he doesn’t miss school.”

“This should blow over quickly, then. Just be careful for the next few weeks about how you interact with him on social media.”

Yuri sighed. “Yeah, I know. Just needed someone to bitch to, and Beka doesn’t need to hear it and Yuuri doesn’t need the distraction with competing next weekend.”

 

Yuuri was at the airport to meet him, but Ryoko wasn’t. Viktor wanted to pout, but realized that it was probably for the best – Ryoko was still too young to take on a train ride when there was no need for it. At least he had Yuuri to cuddle with while he waited. “How were things here? Did you miss me? Did Ryoko miss me?”

“Everyone missed you, Vitya. Ryoko needs her mom.”

Viktor’s hand hit his face. “I can’t believe they actually said that. I’m honestly not sure which I should be most offended by… them ignoring everything we’ve said about clothes and gender roles to assume that I’m the mom because I wore pink, them ignoring my past costumes and clothing choices and let’s throw in the iconic long hair that I had for years if they were going to decide based on clothes to decide it would be you, them assuming that you’re the mom because I’m the irresponsible spoiled prince, or them assuming that either of us is the mom in the first place.”

“How’s Yuri holding up? I called him after I saw the rumors about him dating, but he said to forget it and focus on my competition.”

“He’s Yuri. He’s angry and would love to kick some sense into people but won’t do it because Yakov would fire him. I talked to Otabek at the airport… he’s not worried about it, really. Kazakhstan’s skating organization has hired him a publicist to help promote him, so he’s got professional assistance, and his nature is to keep his head down and let stuff blow over anyway. He’ll be fine. The worst of it is his grandmother woke him up early this morning to demand to meet his boyfriend and he barely had time to pack thanks to having to convince her that Yuri’s just his friend. He still had to promise to try to get Yuri out to Kazakhstan next time he was there.”

“Yuri shouldn’t have a problem with that. Any sign of Lev trying to take advantage?”

“No, not yet. I’m sure it’ll happen.” Viktor leaned up against Yuuri. “Are you going to fight me on raising Ryoko to respect soulbonds?”

“Eh… depends what you mean? I’m going to help you with teaching her… or future kids… when they’re young that soulbonds are important and they should wait for their soulmates and give their soulmates a proper chance before considering moving on, but I’m not going to let you try to force them into anything. If they choose to experiment when they’re teenagers, I’ll be disappointed, certainly, and let them know that, but I’m not going to do anything to make them feel like I don’t love them just as much. I’m not going to let you, either. If their soulmate turns out to be Lev or Kokei the next generation, I’m calling in Yuri or Mari. Why, what brings this up?”

“Talking to Yuri, just thinking… I know I tend to be a little zealous about soulmates, and you’ve had to haul me back a few times when dealing with our friends.”

Yuuri grinned. “It’s okay, you can say Chris’s name.”

“It’s not just him! Usually him, but not just him. Besides, Jolanda and Masumi are our friends too!” Yuuri cuddled in, and Viktor relaxed. “I was just wondering, I know you believe the same things I do about soulbonds, but you insist we have no right to tell others how to handle theirs. I can accept that, but it’s a little different when they’re our children, you know?”

“Yeah, but… all we can do is teach them. They’re going to make mistakes, they’re going to rebel, it’s human nature.”

“You never rebelled against your parents.”

“Not in any big way, but part of that was that my parents gave me a lot of freedom even before they let me move off to Russia when I was fourteen. I always knew they were there for me if I wanted or needed them, but they let me be independent and make my own choices as much as I could. You, on the other hand, rebelled all the time, didn’t you.”

“Against my actual parents, not so much, but Yakov would die from laughing if you asked that in front of him.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cup of China. Some backstory and answers. Media silliness.
> 
> Timeline: Nov 5-7

Even with Viktor’s warning, even with Viktor sitting right beside him cuddling him, Yuuri was not prepared for the loneliness of not having Ryoko with him on the flight to China. Making matters worse was that instead of going back to Hasetsu after this, he and Viktor would be going to Saint Petersburg. Bin and Jiahao would be headed out to Hasetsu to celebrate Jiahao’s second birthday a little late, so they were going to miss Ryoko meeting her big cousin. At least he had Viktor beside him

Yuuko gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze. “I can’t imagine leaving my girls so young. One small mercy from the season I took off to have them.”

“Yeah, I guess. I feel like a horrible dad, going off and leaving her for over a month! We’re going to miss so much.”

“You are. They change so fast. You’ll get to see her every day on the phone, at least. She’ll hear your voices and know you love her.”

“Maybe we should have taken the season off…” Yuuri said, voice trailing off at Yuuko’s glare. “I know, Mari wouldn’t have agreed to that, especially with me. I’m just being a nervous first-time parent.”

 

Seeing Yakov and Mila helped a lot with missing Ryoko, but then meeting up with Bin and Jiahao brought it all back. “I remember how hard it was,” Bin said. “You never quite get used to it.”

“I’m sorry we can’t be there when you two go out there, but at least you get to. Have you and Mari started planning for her kid yet?” Yuuri asked.

Bin shook his head. “It’s too soon, this trip, and with me retiring at the end of the season unless something odd happens, it’s not like I’m going to have much of a schedule to plan around.”

“Wait, what? You’re retiring?” Viktor said. “Why?”

Bin took a moment to figure out how to explain. “When I wake up in the morning and start to get ready for practice, I just don’t have that joy I used to. Practice has become a chore to get through. I still love competing, I still feel like I can, I just don’t want to do the work anymore. I’m not going to make it to the Olympics, so unless this season goes badly enough that I feel like I need to try one more time, or something happens to Su or Yuhan, I may as well quit while I’m on top.”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, we’re going to miss you during competitions,” Viktor said. “Any idea what’s next for you?”

“No, not yet. I’m going to take a year to figure that out. My father and Lian’s parents think I should go back to school and become a doctor, but I don’t think I have the people skills for that. My mother thinks I should stick with skating, get into coaching. I don’t know.”

“What do you want?” Yuuri asked.

“That’s what the year off is to figure out. I don’t know. I’ve never thought about what I want. From the time I was very little, my life was all about skating, everything else was secondary. Lian helped me realize there was more to life and that I could have that without neglecting skating, which is one reason why getting into coaching without even looking at other options feels wrong, and becoming a doctor was her dream, not mine. That’s not what Lian would have wanted for me.”

“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about Lian this much,” Viktor said. Not that he blamed Bin. He remembered the season where Lian was dying, how devastated Bin was at the time. He also remembered his father’s behavior after his mother’s death. The parallels were striking.

The corner of Bin’s mouth twitched up into a half-hearted smile. “For a long time, it just hurt too much. I loved her a great deal. It’s only recently that I’ve even tried to talk about her, and that was for Jiahao. Now that I’ve started, though, it’s much easier.”

 

Weirdness came when Viktor ran into Anya while Yuuri was practicing. He’d forgotten she was competing. “Where’s Georgi?”

Anya shrugged. “Saint Petersburg, probably. It’s possible he decided to follow me anyway, he’s a little… obsessive.”

“You’ve never minded before…”

“We’ve never fought like this before. I’ve never thought that having him around would be more of a distraction than support before.” Anya made a face. “The thought of being around him and you at the same time was awful.”

Viktor blinked, having no idea how to take that. “Thanks?”

“Look, it’s not that you’re not a decent guy and all, but between Georgi pointing at you and Yuuri and how happy you are with your kid and the risk of you going off about us not being soulmates, I didn’t want to deal. Christov wants me to break up with him. I might, but not for the reason Christov’s using.”

Viktor’s jaw dropped. “You and Georgi might break up?”

“We might. I don’t want kids. I thought Georgi understood that and accepted that his nieces and nephews and friends’ kids were going to be it. He, I guess, thought I’d change my mind. I haven’t. I’m not going to. If he can’t deal with that, then we need to break up.”

Fair enough, really. “So what’s Christov’s reasoning for you breaking up with him?”

Anya burst into laughter. “Christov thinks Georgi might sabotage my birth control. As dramatic and obsessive as Georgi is, he’s not a douchebag like that. Forced pregnancy isn’t his thing.”

“If you do break up with Georgi, are you going to go to your soulmate?”

“No.” Anya scowled. “Not that it’s any of your business why I’ve never gone to my soulmate, but if it’ll shut you up… when I turned eighteen, my soulmate was twenty-three and married and a father of three. He was screwing around in high school, knocked up his girlfriend, she refused to terminate the pregnancy, so he did the only thing he felt he could do and married her. He was sixteen, she was fifteen. If I get with him, I’d end up being a stepmom, and I don’t want to deal with kids any closer than I have to. I never bothered to contact him when I woke up. I don’t even know how anymore.” She held up a finger. “Don’t start. I was pissed, sure, but not because he had a girlfriend. Because he’d been stupid about it.”

“Does Georgi know?”

“Of course Georgi knows,” Anya scoffed. “I know about his soulmate, too, although I’m not going to tell you anything about them. That’s Georgi’s call.”

 

Ice dance skated first in competition, and Anya and Christov finished second, behind Jolanda and Masumi. Skye started off the ladies’ competition very well, getting above 70, and Mila came up strong with a 65. Things dropped off after that, as by the end of the first group, no one else was above 60. Mila was super excited when she got to her seat, taking Yuuri’s place as he left to prepare for the men’s skate. Halfway through the second group, China’s new star finally got above 60, and then Yuuko just barely beat Mila’s score. Raisa was the only other skater to beat 60 for the day.

Bin skated first in the men’s short program, and he set a high bar with a 93. Jude also broke 90. Su was the only other skater above 80 by the time Yuuri took the ice, skating tenth. Like Viktor, Yuuri had eased up a little on the difficulty for his short program from previous years. With the easier program, he was confident and comfortable on the ice, and it showed. His spins were great, and his step sequence sparkled. Considering how uninspiring he found ninja, he was doing an amazing skate. Yakov had to work for the criticism while they waited for his 94 to pop up.

“Yuuri! Does this mean you’ve reconsidered your position on ninja and you and your husband will be raising Ryoko as one?”

Yuuri bit back the urge to laugh. “The only thing my husband and I will be intentionally raising Ryoko as is a good person. I have not changed my views on ninja. They are overrated. However, it fit my theme, and the look on Vitya’s face when he first saw it was worth having to deal with it for the rest of the season.”

“You’re not going to try to make Ryoko into a skater like you and Viktor?”

“Just because she’s our child doesn’t mean she’s going to inherit our talent or our drive. If she did, and skating is what she wants to do, we’ll support her in it, but if she finds that her real love is something completely different, we will not be forcing her into a role that doesn’t fit her.”

“Is that why you aren’t sticking with traditional girls’ clothes?”

Yuuri scoffed. “Traditional? Traditionally, boys and girls were dressed identically so that clothes could be reused for as long as possible. It’s only recently that the idea of gendered clothes for infants has become a thing, and I think it’s ridiculous. My husband agrees.”

“Viktor mentioned last week that the two of you are planning to have at least one more. When? Will Mari carry for you again?”

“At the moment, we’re thinking next year, for a two-year separation between Ryoko and our second child. Plans may change, but right now, we are not planning on asking Mari to carry a second child for us.”

“Is there someone else you have in mind, or will you be looking to adopt?”

“There is someone else we have in mind, who we’ve spoken to, but I’m not comfortable naming her at this time.” Yes, that meant there would be ridiculous speculation, and hopefully, someone would get it right. Yuuko and Sasha, the two people most likely to be named, were all for it and wanted to see who else came up.

“Why not Mari?”

“After one for Bin and one for my husband and me, Mari’s decided she wants one of her own to keep in Hasetsu with her to raise. Vitya and I fully support her decision.”

 

The speculation was hilarious. “It’s Mari but they don’t want her getting bothered by the media”, “Mari’s refusing to have another one because pregnancy sucks”, “Yuuri and Yuuko are going to have an affair”, “If Sasha doesn’t make the Olympics she’s going to quit to have Yuuri’s baby”, “Mila’s going to take a season off”. Various other friends had been mentioned, like Skye or Jolanda or Emily, and then there were some crazy theories. Yuuri had been abducted by aliens and they’d told him they’d come back in a year to create an alien-human hybrid. Anya and Georgi were fighting because Anya was going to carry Viktor’s child. Viktor was going to retire, reveal that he was trans, and now he was going to carry the rest of their children. They had a baby growing in a hidden lab in China and would just reveal him when the time came. They were going to clone Ryoko.

Most of the women mentioned found it hilarious. Anya didn’t. She didn’t blame Viktor or Yuuri for it, and admitted that she’d be laughing too if it weren’t for the current fighting with Georgi. It didn’t bother her enough that she skated badly, although she and Christov couldn’t quite catch up to Jolanda and Masumi for gold. In the ladies’ skate, none of the skaters seemed off at all, and Yuuko made up most of the ground on Skye to end up with silver. Mila made up even more ground, solidifying her bronze medal easily. With two golds, Skye had a trip to the finals sewn up.

Neither Jude nor Bin broke 180, giving Yuuri an easy path to gold. The warrior Klingons were not at all Yuuri’s style, but he enjoyed himself immensely as he danced to their music. It was a lot more fun than the ninja from before. Unlike Viktor, he’d gone for a lower technical difficulty on this routine as well, which worked against him a bit. The stumble on the triple Lutz wasn’t a big deal, but when he got to his final jump, a quad toe loop, he was less tired than usual. He overrotated badly, and ended up falling as a result. Not the ending to his program he’d been hoping for… but then again, his 185 score was about the same as he’d done in his first qualifier the last two seasons, with higher difficulty programs. Yakov was duly impressed. Bin took the silver, Jude bronze, and Sachio fourth place to give him a chance at the Finals but not a good one.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trophee Eric Bompard and Rostelecom Cup.
> 
> Warning: off-screen terrorism (based on the real-world Paris attacks of 2015).

As good as it was to see Vicchan and Makkachin again, there was still a gaping hole in Viktor and Yuuri’s lives without Ryoko there. Even Yuri felt it. “I’m looking forward to April now. I’ll be working on quads, and Ryoko will be here so you two can stop moping.”

Yakov was sympathetic, but not so sympathetic that he let them off easy in practice. Sure, they had both won gold at their first competitions, but Yakov wasn’t convinced they’d have the top spots at Finals without a lot of work. Besides, he argued, it was the best way to take their minds off of things. He gave them plenty of time for the daily Skype calls to talk to Ryoko, to make sure she was still hearing Viktor and Yuuri’s voices and languages.

The Trophee Eric Bompard was another good distraction. Sara, Emily, and Kei were all skating and expected to be the medalists, with Madlene and Elodie as dark horses. Sara finished in first, a few tenths ahead of Kei, with Emily third. Madlene, after a nasty fall, struggled to finish and ended up in eighth. In the ice dance, the two French teams confirmed their trip to the Finals.

Chris started the men’s skate off. He did well, but he had a hand down on the landing of his quad Lutz that meant he might not be in first. Sure enough, Michele ended up beating him by two points. His lead held up, with Chris in second, JJ third, Togai fourth, Otabek fifth, and Phichit sixth. Yuri glared at the TV. “I don’t want JJ in the Finals. That’s going to be obnoxious. I hope Beka kicks his ass in the free skate.”

“I’m so happy for Michele, though! He did really well!” Viktor said. “Shame about Chris, but he can take it back tomorrow.”

 

They turned it off after pairs to get some sleep… early morning practice and all. Viktor was distinctly unhappy when Yuri burst in. “Wake up, guys! This is huge!”

Viktor checked the clock. “So huge it can’t wait until morning? It’s after eleven, shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“I was, until Beka called and told me to turn on the news. Seriously, guys, this is a really big deal. Like Trophee Eric Bompard free skates will probably be canceled big.”

That got Viktor’s attention, and he turned his phone on to see that Chris was blowing it up. Yuuri’s eyes got huge as he started reading through the messages from Phichit. “I’m so glad the competition wasn’t in Paris. It might have been a target!”

Viktor waded through news… multiple suicide bombers and gunmen in Paris, targets ranging from a soccer match to a death metal concert to a restaurant. “Where does Richard live? Does he have family in Paris?”

Yuri’s face drained of color. “He’s training in Bordeaux, but his parents spend a lot of time in Paris. They might have been there. I hadn’t even thought…” He called Richard and reported back. “His mom was in Paris on business but he’s heard from her and she’s safe in her sister’s house.”

“That’s good. Why are you thinking they might cancel? All the attacks have been in Paris…” Viktor said.

“Yeah, but come on, the French government has a lot to deal with, holding a skating competition is kinda…” Yuri shrugged. “I’d be surprised if it actually happens, that’s all.”

“He’s right,” Yuuri said. “Remember Tokyo’s Worlds? Yes, part of that was there was damage to Tokyo, but there was also the sense of mourning and emergency in Japan. France is in shock right now.”

 

Yakov called a meeting partway through practice. “Free skates in France are cancelled. They’re looking at what to do with potential tiebreak situations and will have an announcement when they can.”

“So… what about the medals?”

“Short program standings are the final standings. Michele and Christophe are in the Finals, JJ likely is with silver and bronze. Kei is in and Sara’s got a good shot with this gold and the NHK where she should medal. None of the big competitions were scheduled for France, so as far as skating’s concerned, this is over. Next year’s qualifier should be fine. None of you are French, none of you have serious ties to France, so I wouldn’t expect the press to be seeking you until Rostelecom. Avoid getting into politics. Check with your publicists, but my advice would be to keep comments short and focused on the victims and respecting whatever decisions the ISU makes regarding the tiebreakers and qualifications for Finals.”

 

There was no response from the ISU by the time Viktor had to leave for the Rostelecom Cup. Minako had checked in with some old friends from dance school – one had been injured by one of the gunmen, but the others were fine. The other skaters were split between wanting to ignore everything about it and trying to predict what the ISU was going to do with tiebreakers.

Yuuri hadn’t planned on coming, but between everyone else being gone, Lilia wanting to go, and Yuri wanting to go to visit his grandpa and cheer on Stas in pairs, Yakov agreed to Yuuri coming along too as long as he promised to try to get some rink time somewhere. Rykov talked to his coach and promised Yuuri that rink time would not be a problem.

At least Georgi and Anya seemed to have made up, as Anya spent as much time in Georgi’s arms as she could. Christov was greatly annoyed. “They haven’t solved any of the problems they were having, Anya’s just clinging to him because a friend of hers died in Paris. I hate this so much. I don’t like Georgi, but he’s been good for her until recently. If they could solve this shit about kids, I could deal. I just don’t like her clinging when they haven’t actually fixed anything.”

As expected, the reporters wanted to talk about Paris. Almost all of the skaters went with Yakov’s advice, not talking much about the attacks or the potential fallout for the skaters. “The ISU will look at it and make the decision in the best interests of the skaters. It seems wrong to focus too much on worrying about skating when so many people have lost loved ones. My heart goes out to all of those affected by the attacks.”

 

As upset as Anya was, her skating was beautiful, among the best dancing she’d ever done. She and Christov took the lead in the short program. Viktor was up first in the men’s skate. He started off with a huge quad flip, and everything else in the program was clean. Yakov still had plenty to talk about, but the 91 was a good score. Not unbeatable, but still very good.

Georgi’s 86 was something of a disappointment, and Viktor could see Yakov telling him off for his distracted skating. Jude’s 87 beat him. Emil got into fourth, Su sixth, Saviliy eighth. Salomat and Stas took second in the pairs, behind Lina and Tima. In the ladies’, Iona started things off strong with a 67. It held up until Mila skated – Mila’s 71 gave her the lead and Yakov’s approval. Cathy took third for the day, with Raisa fourth, Alena sixth, and Phichit’s rinkmate Amy ninth.

“Viktor, 91 is a good score, but you’re capable of going over 100. Are you surprised that you’re in first?”

“I know Georgi could have beaten me today, but I wouldn’t say I’m surprised to be in first. I’m a good skater, I can win, and 91 is still an exceptionally good score. Even with some uncharacteristic mistakes, Georgi’s very close, and then there’s Jude. It’s nice going into tomorrow with a challenge.”

“Mila’s in first. Do you think she’ll win this one?”

“I think it’s possible! Iona is an excellent skater, consistently one of the top skaters in the world, but I think Mila has shown that she’s joining that group. I very much hope to see her hold onto her gold.”

“After this, it’s off to Japan to with Yuuri for his competition. Will you be returning to Hasetsu after that, or coming home?”

“If Yuuri and I both miss the Finals, we’ll be going to Hasetsu for sure. It’s unlikely, but it could happen. If not, it depends how happy Yakov is with how we’re skating.”

“Will the attacks in France affect that at all?”

“No.” As much as Viktor wanted to get to Ryoko and give her all the hugs, promise her that this was not what the world was going to be like, he had a career to think about. Mari and the others could handle that.

“Do you not feel like a terrible parent, abandoning your daughter for a month?”

Viktor forced his face to remain in a bland smile. “I would if I were abandoning her. She’s with people who love her, my husband and I call her every day, and she is well loved and well cared for." He winked at the cameras. "I’m sure that if I were getting into abandonment territory, Yuri Plisetsky would be sure to kick my ass for it.”

“Damn straight I would,” Yuri said when he heard that after the interview. “Is Ryoko gonna come to the NHK?”

“No. She’s too young to be in that kind of crowd, especially this time of year,” Yuuri said. “Are you coming out after the NRW?”

“If Yakov says I can. I gotta be ready for Finals, too.”

 

Anya and Christov pulled out the gold, giving them a trip to the Finals again, and the silver medal went to the Americans who were also going to Finals. Saviliy had a bad skate, dropping behind several other skaters. Georgi and Emil both skated well, while Jude struggled enough to drop to third with Viktor still to skate. 184 was easily within reach for Viktor. He wasn’t necessarily skating for gold – he was skating for Ryoko.

That thought lifted him through the opening jumps of his program, and missing her helped him get into character for Stammi Vicino. It was a beautiful program, one that Viktor did very well. Yakov was picky about the criticism, but the 194 made Viktor confident that Yakov would allow him, at least, to go to Hasetsu after the NHK.

Yakov surprised him. As soon as Yuuri had caught up to them, he pulled them aside. “I’m going to hold it over Yuri to keep him motivated, but Yuuri, I think it’s best to take that pressure off you now. Viktor did well, you two can go to Hasetsu after the NHK.”

Stas and Salomat got the bronze in pairs, which was good enough that they were going to the Finals, while Lina and Tima won gold for their own Finals ticket. Amy improved her standing, putting her in good position to finish with points. Mila held on for gold over Iona, with Cathy in a distant bronze, Raisa fourth, and Alena fifth. Mila didn’t stop bouncing all night. She and Iona were in the finals. Cathy was out, but in good place to be an alternate.

News came from the ISU Monday morning and Yakov called them over to hear it. “Tiebreakers will be based on the short program first. The biggest thing is that anyone who places seventh in the standings and skated in France will be a finalist instead of an alternate; they’ll just have seven finalists in that case. That means JJ is a finalist no matter what happens with Leo, Bin, and Yuuri in Japan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, this is a real-world event, and the decision to cancel the free skate and alter the tiebreakers and allow seventh-place contenders to be Finalists are how the ISU handled the situation.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NHK, Part One
> 
> Timeline: November 25-27

Yuuri was grateful not to have the chance to be back with his daughter hanging over him on the flight to Nagano. It was hard enough as it was. He would almost certainly have some kind of breakdown if he didn’t know he was going home after this. Viktor cuddled up close. “It’ll be good to see everyone, won’t it?”

“It’ll be weird seeing Sara without Michele! I’m a little surprised he’s still competing, he doesn’t have a chance at winning the Challenger Series and being a finalist gives him the perfect excuse to drop out and come with Sara instead.” Christophe had won the Challenger Series - no one else was going to get two gold medals.

Viktor grinned. “Emil told Michele that if he didn’t show up, he would pay for it. Something about jumping off cliffs. I got the message through Mila, so…”

“Good for Emil. I’m glad that’s working, both for them and for Sara.”

 

Phichit and Seung Gil met them at the hotel. “Hey guys! Ready to go make some mischief?”

“Depends. Are Chris and Masumi here yet?” Viktor asked.

“Yes, they’re both here, they’re a little busy at the moment but they should be down soon.” Phichit checked his phone. “Yuuko’s here too, and Minako’s promised to look after triplets for the evening so shenanigans can happen. Sara took off with the Canadians, and Bin’s flight had weather delays so he won’t be here for a couple hours. Let’s go have some fun!”

“What about Leo?” Rykov asked. “Isn’t he here?”

“Yeah, but he took off with Dominic and Adriaan to go check out Olympic Village. I didn’t know if you guys would be interested.” Phichit looked up from his phone. “By the way, if you haven’t checked, Kei’s in first in Poland, Skye’s second, Emily’s third.”

 

They ended up going to Olympic Village to meet up with the others. The next day, after their practice time, Viktor rented out a conference room so as many people as wanted to could come watch the Challenger Series event. “By the way, Rykov, did you bring your medal?” Viktor asked.

Rykov blinked. “No? Why would I?”

“You won gold! There is a tradition in this family!” Viktor winked. “I won’t speak for Yuuri, but I owe you a medal kiss if you want one.”

“Wh… really?” Rykov stared at Viktor in shock.

Sasha smacked his arm. “I told you so!” She reached into her purse and pulled the medal out, handing it over with a wink. “Don’t tell my husband I stole his medal.” Both Yuuri and Viktor kissed it before handing it back to Rykov. Michele finished in first by a huge margin. Skye just barely edged out Kei for the gold in ladies’, which meant she would win the Challenger Series overall, with Emily taking bronze.

 

Pairs skated first in Japan. Not knowing any of them, Viktor and Yuuri skipped so they could call Ryoko. “Oh my gosh, you’ve gotten so big! Look at you! Don’t grow anymore until your dad and I can get home to hold you again, please?”

“Something tells me she’s going to be stubborn and do her own thing,” Mari said. “Just like her dads.”

Yuuri was skating at the end of group 1, so they had to hang up earlier than they would have liked – okay, really, they would have been just as happy not to hang up ever, but they lost time they could have had if Yuuri were in group 2. Rykov kicked things off, setting a high bar with an 88. Phichit also broke 80, but the rest of the group’s scores were low.

Yuuri’s program started off very well, and he tried to hide his surprise at his soaring triple axel. Everything just went well. He was having one of those magical skates where everything just comes together, and when he came to a stop, he couldn’t believe he’d just done that.

Yakov’s silence in the Kiss and Cry worried him. Yakov noticed. “I’m not mad. I just don’t have anything to say, this time. If you can do that in the Grand Prix Finals, you won’t have any trouble winning.”

“Yes I will. Viktor will be skating, and there’s still the free skate.” Still, Yuuri basked in the praise. His score popped up, and Yuuri turned to Yakov expecting to hear that there was a mistake. Given his low base value, breaking 100 was a huge deal.

Yakov just nodded. “I thought that might happen. I think you should be in first after group two.”

He was, although Bin cut his lead to only five points will a brilliant skate of his own. Phichit finished the day in fourth, Leo sixth, and Seung Gil seventh. Viktor picked him up and carried him into the stands to wait for the ice dance – Jolanda and Masumi were skating early, so they could leave after that to go talk to the media. They could check the scores after, but they wanted to watch the skating.

Chris jumped up to hug Yuuri. “That was amazing. I’m scared to see what happens next year, when you’re back to pushing the limits with your base values!”

Yuuri blushed. “I can’t believe it, still. I’m probably going to have a bad night tonight.”

Viktor hugged him tighter. “I have the ninja sheep. We’ll get you through it.”

 

Jolanda and Masumi did great, well enough that Yuuri fully expected to see them on top when they checked after dealing with the press. Things didn’t start out well, although they started out exactly how Yuuri expected. “We’re in Japan. I’m surprised your sister and daughter aren’t here.”

“My daughter is nine weeks old, far too young to bring into a crowd like this. Mari’s been very good about respecting our wishes as parents, but if we’d tried to get her to bring Ryoko, I know she would have put her foot down. You will not be seeing her at Nationals, either, and we’re definitely not taking her out of the country until we take her to her home in Russia.”

“You expect her to consider Russia home?”

“She is half-Russian, and we’re going to encourage her to think of both Saint Petersburg and Hasetsu as home. When she’s old enough that she has to choose one to represent, whether that’s for some sort of international competition or just Japan’s restriction on dual citizenship over the age of twenty, that choice will be hers.”

“Are you going back to Hasetsu before the Finals?”

“Yes. I’ll likely be in Hasetsu between Finals and Nationals as well, unless I do so badly that Yakov needs me to come to Saint Petersburg so we can fix whatever went wrong.”

“There are pictures of you and Viktor kissing Rykov’s gold medal from Tallinn. Whose idea was that?”

“Rykov is my brother-in-law. He’s family. We have long since outgrown childish feuds, so of course the dragon would want to kiss gold.”

They got back to the hotel just in time to watch the last couple men’s skaters in Poland. Michele won handily, with two Canadian skaters taking silver and bronze. Then to their room, where Viktor handed Yuuri the sheep. “Relax. Cuddle the sheep. You’ve got this. Everyone is so proud of you, and we know that tomorrow will probably have some struggles. You’re not going to let us down if you can’t have a second perfect skate.”


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NHK Part 2 and then Yuuri gets his favorite birthday present ever.
> 
> Timeline: November 28-29

The second day of skating started with the ladies. Naturally, Sara was skating late, which limited any time to call after, so Viktor and Yuuri called Ryoko early. Mari waved. “I wouldn’t have to put my foot down on you taking Ryoko to Nagano. Mom would kill us all.”

“Heh. True. Hello, sweetheart, how are you?” Viktor waved to Ryoko, getting a baby smile in return. He squealed. “Yuuri, look! She’s smiling at us!”

“She is! Wow! Hello, little one, I miss you so much. I get to hold you again in two days!”

“One, possibly,” Viktor interrupted.

Yuuri turned to look at him. “What?”

“We can leave right after the exhibition, if you want. Get you home to your daughter on your birthday.”

“Did you hear that, Ryoko? One day!” Yuuri turned back to Viktor. “You have run that by Yakov, right?”

“No.” Yuuri didn’t have time to react before Viktor was laughing softly. “Yakov called me an idiot for not planning that from the start.”

 

When Yuuko took the ice, Sako had the lead with a 65. Yuuko could beat that, if she had a good skate, and she did. Her 69 was great, and likely to hold up. Sara had a good skate, but not a great one, putting her in third for the day. The pairs skating was fun to watch and kept Yuuri distracted while he waited to skate. The Japanese team that took bronze was Yuuri’s favorite, although he recognized that the gold and silver medalists had done better.

Pressure started to mount when Togai had a couple mistakes that meant he would likely miss the medals. With Masaki behind Togai, Japan was not going to be happy with their skaters, so if Yuuri screwed up, that was going to suck. He tried to focus on watching Phichit and Rykov, but when Bin took the ice, he couldn’t.

“Yuuri. Togai and Masaki aren’t your responsibility, and the JSF is not going to take their disappointment with them out on you. Bronze gets you to the Finals, and with Rykov and Phichit’s scores, I don’t see any way you drop even that far. When you get out there, forget everything and skate for Ryoko.”

“I’ll try.” Bin’s score passed Rykov’s, meaning that if Yuuri medaled, Phichit wouldn’t. Yuuri tried not to feel bad about that. Phichit wouldn’t be mad. His nerves caused his opening jump combo to be a little wobbly, but he recovered quickly. That was that mistake out of the way. No perfect program, but he could still do a good one, and he was determined not to fall. When he got to his last jump, he focused entirely on landing cleanly, and pulled it off. No falls, no major mistakes, just a couple bobbles here and there.

This time, there was no weird silence in the Kiss and Cry. Yakov had plenty to say about Yuuri’s skating, and Yuuri let it wash over him and calm him down. The 197 didn’t surprise him, this time, and he hugged Yakov. “Thank you for helping me calm down.”

“You’re welcome. Go get your medal.”

The podium was nice, and the first question was about it. “You got to be on a podium with your brother-in-law and the father of your sister’s first child. Were you happy about that, or would you rather have had your best friend up there with you?”

“I would have been happy with whatever skaters skated the best, and Bin and Rykov were that today. I look forward to sharing a podium with Phichit when the time comes – it won’t be Finals, but I would love to stand next to him at Four Continents.”

“Last year, the Saccharine Six absorbed Michele easily. Do you think it will be the same for JJ, this year, in his first Finals?”

“It’s hard to say, but I wouldn’t rule it out. We’ll just have to be sure to keep him and Yuri apart.”

“Why do Yuri and JJ not get along?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s just a personality conflict.”

“Do you think they might be soulmates?”

Yuuri glared. He could just see Yuri’s reaction to the idea of being JJ’s soulmate. “I will not engage in soulmate speculation about Yuri. He doesn’t know, he doesn’t want to know until sixteen, and there is no point in straining his relationships with others by suggesting things that more likely than not aren’t there.”

“You and Bin are in the finals, with Georgi, Sachio, and Jude as alternates. No chance of a Feltsman sweep this year. Who would you like on the podium with you and Viktor?”

“Whoever does the best.”

“But…”

“That’s it. No matter what, I’m going to be celebrating with someone and commiserating with someone, and I don’t like to put expectations on who’s where.”

 

Yuuri’s birthday started with the ladies’ free skate. Yuuko hugged him before she left to get ready. “I’ll get you a gold medal for your birthday. Does that sound good?”

“Yeah, that’d be great. Good luck!”

The first group featured some good skaters, but no one Yuuri or Viktor knew well. Group 2 was more interesting, as Cassie skated beautifully to have the lead when Sara took the ice. Sara did very well, beating Cassie by two points. Sako took the ice and started out well, but halfway through, she fell on a triple loop. After that, every jump looked hesitant, and she was crying as she skated for the Kiss and Cry. It was not going to be a good score. She ended up in fourth, with Yuuko still to skate. Yuuri held his breath and hoped that Yuuko would be able to shake it off. She did, getting close to 130 to win gold.

As they prepared for the exhibition, Yuuri asked Yuuko about Sako. “Her coach has been putting a lot of pressure on her this season, because she’s struggling to keep up. I’m leaving, but Takako is probably coming up. I’m worried about her, really. This isn’t going to help – the JSF was already putting high expectations on us after yesterday, and now…”

“Ugh. I’m sorry to hear that.”

 

After the exhibition, Yuuri and Viktor went straight to the train station. They got to Hasetsu very late. Almost everyone was asleep, but Mari was up with Ryoko. “Good timing. I was just about to put her back in her crib. Happy birthday, Yuuri.” She handed Ryoko to Yuuri.

Ryoko yawned and squirmed a little, but settled down quickly when Yuuri started talking quietly to her. “Hi, little one. We’re back. I know you’re tired, and we’ll let you get to sleep soon, but we had to say hi as soon as we could. We love you, baby.”

“Your hoard has grown,” Viktor added. “Be proud of your dad. He did good.”


	26. Chapter 26

The NRW had always been one of Yuri’s favorite competitions. First because Yakov turned him loose to skate up to his potential, then because it was a chance to hang out with his friends who were still in novices. Next year, as a senior, he might have to give it up – for sure if his Grand Prix assignments conflicted – but next year, there would be Challenger Series, and he’d be in the big competitions. Worth it.

Getting to see Dariya and Cécile and Julien was always a plus. He’d miss them next year. He’d probably get to see Cécile at the Finals, maybe Julien if he handled the transition to juniors well. Dariya might or might not make it. If Richard stayed in juniors for the chance at more medals, that would be another one he’d miss.

When he went to the LeRoys’ hotel room, he was met with not two but four of them. “Gabriel? Thérèse? You guys are here?”

“We’re competing now. I’m finally old enough,” Thérèse said. “There’s not a lot of us, because the lifts are kind of hard at our age. I think there’s one other team.”

“At least there is one other team,” Gabriel said. “Our last competition ended up being an exhibition. That sucked.”

“I thought Mom and Dad should let Gabriel compete for a couple years in novices with me, just to get some experience, but Mom didn’t want us competing against each other,” Julien said. “Don’t know what she’s going to do when I go to seniors and compete against JJ.”

“So, wait, your mom chooses how you compete? What if you don’t want to compete?” Yuri couldn’t imagine doing this if he had to be forced into it. He’d chosen this and never looked back, but being forced into it by his parents? He shuddered.

Cécile shrugged. “Last summer, Michael threw a fit and decided he didn’t want to even try figure skating anymore. He hated it, and in his defense, he sucked. Compared to the rest of us, including Claude, anyway; he could have competed and done pretty well. Mom and Dad got him into hockey instead.” 

Yuri could sympathize with that. He’d never experienced it, not like that, but he remembered the days when he was barely doing jumps at all and it seemed like everyone else was doing all these cool tricks. If he’d been around to see Viktor or Misha or Yuuri at the same stage and realized they were better, he’d probably have given up, too.

 

Competition began with the novice girls. Dariya was in the second group of four, and the improvement in her skating since starting to work with a proper coach, even long-distance, was amazing. Her score ended up holding up through the rest of the group. There were fewer boys competing, only three groups, but for boys that was well-attended. Julien was in the first group, and although Yuri couldn’t stay to watch the last group, his score was likely to hold up.

As soon as Yuri got into the holding room, Richard and Klaus came over. “Hey! Did you see the latest stupid yet?”

Yuri groaned. “Stupider than the questions Yuuri got about JJ?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Richard said. “Probably, though. There’s a rumor going around that Viktor and Yuuri are dropping out of the Finals because they don’t want to leave Ryoko again so soon.”

“If they tried there would be a line to murder them,” Yuri said. “They love their kid and don’t deal well with separation, but they’re skaters. This is their job. They know that.”

“Yeah, it’s a dumb rumor,” Klaus said. “The one about Viktor retiring after this season to be a full-time father, that I could believe. Do you know if there’s any truth to that?”

“Not that I’ve heard, which means it’s not at a stage where he’s ready to talk. I think he means to stick around through the next Olympics, one more try for the gold after three silvers, if he can. But yeah, that’s less dumb than skipping Finals.”

Yuri was in the third of four groups, and no one was above 65 when he took the ice. Starting out with the triple axel gave him some good confidence as he danced across the ice as Superman. His job was making the audience believe a man could fly, and he was doing it. Yakov agreed with his feeling, focusing on a few technical issues. His score of 76 wasn’t his best, but it was still great. Klaus at least broke 65, and Richard got close.

 

Yuri was off on day 2, but he still went to the rink to watch his friends. Richard came with him. “Did you call Viktor and ask about the retirement?”

“Nah. They need the time with their kid. The retirement rumor’s dumb enough I don’t really feel the need to ask right away.” 

“Okay. Fair enough, really. I’m hoping it’s wrong. I want to compete against him.”

“He’ll beat you. He beats everyone.”

“I don’t care, I want to compete against him.”

“Bad enough to go up to seniors if next year’s going to be his last?”

“I… I don’t know,” Richard said. “I’m not ready for seniors, but… stay with you, compete against Viktor, might be worth it.”

Boys skated first today. Julien held on to his lead to win this one, the first LeRoy medal of hopefully three. Dariya took gold in the novice girls, which Yuri was equally happy with. Cécile got to skate, eventually – there were thirty-seven ladies skating in juniors, and Cécile was in the last group. Her score was well above the second-place skater, giving her a huge lead going into the free skate the next day.

 

Yuri called Viktor the next morning. “How’s Ryoko?”

“Fussy. She’s not sleeping well, and she has a runny nose. The doctor says she has a cold. It’s not serious, but it’s heartbreaking to watch.”

“Ugh, I hope she gets better soon. Good luck.”

“Has Yakov said whether you can come out after you’re done there?”

“No, but if I skate like I did in the short program in the free, I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t. I won’t be coming out after Finals. That’ll be time to go see my sisters.” Something occurred to Yuri then that made him flinch. “How do I tell them I probably won’t be out for Christmas after this? I don’t wanna tell them that!”

“You can go for New Year’s and Russia’s Christmas? Natasha’s old enough to understand, but I don’t know about Katya.”

“Yeah, maybe. I’ll talk to Mama and Boris, we’ll figure out something, but it’s still going to suck. Speaking of sucking, there’s a rumor you’re going to retire at the end of the season. I know you’d have told me if you’d decided that, but are you thinking about it?”

“No. Next season, especially if we’re going to have a second kid soon, I might, but I fully expect to be on the ice next season.”

 

Yuri relayed the message to Richard while they waited to skate. “Well, something to think about, then. My moms and my coach will all tell me not to, and I know they’re right, but it’s kind of frustrating, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. I wouldn’t rule out him staying for the Olympics year, though, as long as he’s feeling good.” Yuri hoped so. The Feltsman sweep needed to be repeated, and Georgi was not the one he wanted to be counting on.

Klaus and Richard were going to be the two on the podium with him. That much was decided when Yuri took the ice. He stumbled a little out of the gate, the landing between the double toe loops in his opening combo just enough off that his second one was sloppy. At least he got it around. From there, though, he settled down. The Biellmann spin went very well, and his jumps came down clean after that early mistake. Yakov would have a lot to say, but there was no reason for Yuri to expect to be back in Saint Petersburg for a while. 150 was good, not the best he could do but worth gold.

“Be careful. If you see Lev, call. Tell Viktor that if there’s not someone at the airport to meet you, I will be out there on the next flight to kick some butts.”

Yuri glared, but his heart wasn’t in it. “I can get on a train on my own, you know.”

“I know. It’s not about you not being able to handle yourself, it’s about having that layer of protection between you and Lev. Are you going out to visit Romana and Lorenzo again?”

“Not that I’ve got planned. Not until I’m better convinced that this isn’t some long game of Lev’s to suck me in with a cute baby brother.”

 

Yuri stuck around to watch Cécile win her gold, and cheered as the silver went to a Russian skater. The rest of the day was various pairs competitions. Between the four levels of competition there were a total of seven teams, so it wouldn’t take long. Gabriel and Thérèse did well, beating the Bulgarian team they were competing against by three points. The last day of competition was mostly seniors, but also pairs free skates. Gabriel and Thérèse extended their lead to five points, claiming the third LeRoy gold.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Down time between the NRW and the Finals.
> 
> Timeline: December 2015

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder about the tags on this one.

Viktor was at the airport to meet Yuri. “Ryoko’s doing better. The doctor says not to worry, babies get colds, but that doesn’t make it easier to watch.”

“I can imagine. Everyone else okay?” If it were just Ryoko, Yuri wouldn’t worry much, but if others were sick, it might not be the best idea to go there this close to Finals.

“So far. You should be fine. I’d have told you not to come if I thought there was a chance you’d get sick!” Yuri raised an eyebrow, and Viktor grinned. “Okay. Yuuri would have told you.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s a long flight from Germany, something could have come up.” Yuri adjusted his bag on his shoulder and started toward the door. “Any sign of Lev trouble here?”

“No. I think Lev’s got better sense than to come out here and try anything.”

 

Getting to spend time with Ryoko was very good for Yuuri’s nerves. Even with her having a cold, it kept him from thinking about Finals and pressure and gold medals. The JSF wasn’t taking their disappointing NHK out on Yuuri or Yuuko, but just knowing that they weren’t happy was enough for Yuuri to feel that pressure.

The time had flown since getting here. Tomorrow, the finalists and anyone going with them would be getting on a plane and going to Sochi. “I wish we could take you, Ryoko. Help you understand why sometimes papa and dad are gone. This is our job, and we love it, but we love you, too.”

Ryoko’s smile nearly killed him. Even sick, she was a very happy baby. Hiroko told him not to put too much stock in a baby’s personality predicting the future, children change, but Yuuri hoped that she would stay happy like this forever.

There was a soft tapping sound, and Mari came in. “Sorry to interrupt, but it’s feeding time for her.”

“Oh, here.” Yuuri handed Ryoko over, but stayed close. “Have you thought any more about your kid?”

“Yeah, I’m definitely gonna try for one. Not until after you’ve taken Ryoko home, maybe give myself a little longer to fully recover, but unless you and Viktor want another one from me, I’ll work out a plan with Bin next spring.”

“Good to hear. If you want one for yourself, don’t worry about me and Viktor. We can find another way. Yuuko’s planning on retiring soon, and she’s said she’d do it. It’s about time you do something for yourself.”

“Thanks, Yuuri. I know you and Viktor wouldn’t just demand that I put you two ahead of myself.” Mari looked down at Ryoko and frowned. “Does she feel warm to you?”

Yuuri put a hand to Ryoko’s head. “A little, yeah. Is that normal?”

“Might just be a symptom of the cold she’s got, but she’s been getting better, not worse. Could be she just has terrible luck and is getting another cold. I’ll ask Mom what she thinks, and take her to the doctor if it gets too high or lasts too long.”

“If you take her in, call us? I know this is a big competition, but Viktor and I have the right to know no matter what.”

Mari didn’t answer right away. “If it’s big enough that I think you need to come home, I’ll call you right away. I don’t care if you’re out on the ice, I’ll call right away. Ask Yakov to let you keep your phones, just in case. If it’s minor, just another cold, I’ll save it for your daily check-in. Okay? I don’t want to mess you up.”

Yuuri nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll try to remember that if there’s something serious, you’ll call as soon as you know. It won’t stop me from worrying, but it will help me focus when I need to.”

 

In the morning, Ryoko was still a little warm, but when Hiroko took her temperature it was only slightly elevated. “You might call the pediatrician and ask, but it’s probably just more cold symptoms. Keep a close eye on her.”

“Should we delay our flight?” Yuuri asked. “I’m sure Yakov would understand if we missed the practices tomorrow.”

“No, like Mom said, it’s probably fine,” Mari said. “This is the Finals. You need that practice day. I’ll make sure you have updates waiting for you when you get off the flight.”

Throughout the flight, Yuuri never once let go of Viktor. Even on bathroom trips, he refused to let go, even over Yuri’s gagging and Yuuko’s giggling. The second the plane was on the ground, his phone was out and coming on to check.

_Doctor said to watch closely and see what happens._  
_Fever’s up a little, but not much._  
_She’s alert and happy and eating well._  
_Bit of a rash. Could just be diaper rash._  
_Good luck!_

Yuuri turned to share that with Viktor. Viktor nodded. “Mari will let us know if we need to turn around and go home. Yakov will let us go. Nobody’s seriously worried. Things will be fine.”

“I know. Kids get sick. She will be fine. If she’s not fine, Mari will call and let us know.” Yuuri put his phone away and forced a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

 

Yakov took one look at Yuuri at the hotel and commandeered him, leaving Viktor to go get them checked in. “What’s going on?”

“Not here. Too public.” Yuuri would have to hope nobody was listening on the plane, at least not anyone who knew or cared who they were and what they were talking about. “Where’s Mila?”

“She’s off with Emil and the Crispinos. Do you want me to call her?”

“No, we’ll catch her some other time.” Yuuri checked his phone. No new messages from Mari, nothing from Chris or Bin yet. “Come on. Let’s go somewhere I can talk without worrying about gossip.”

Yakov led the way up to his and Lilia’s room. “So?”

“Ryoko’s been fighting a cold. We thought she was getting better, but she started showing new symptoms right before Viktor and I left. Mom and Mari don’t think it’s anything serious, and the doctor’s said to just watch and see, but I can’t shut up my anxiety voice. I’m going to be calling Larissa once we get settled in, and I’m very much hoping that Mari calls and says Ryoko’s all better before I have to compete, but I’m going to be nervous and distracted.”

“And you want to keep Ryoko’s cold out of the media. Understandable.” Yakov hugged Yuuri, as did Lilia. “Do what you need to do to get some sleep tonight, whether that’s wearing yourself out tonight or drugging or both.”

Larissa echoed Yakov’s advice – make sure to sleep and take care of himself, ask Viktor for help when he needed something to drown out his inner voice, and remind himself that this was all perfectly normal and part of having a kid. No, he was not the world’s worst father for not staying with Ryoko.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short Programs
> 
> Timeline: December 9-10, 2015

Even with Viktor holding him and him holding the green dragon, sleep proved elusive for Yuuri. Yakov told him to take it easy in practice and not work too hard. Yuuri tried to obey, none of the jumps he was doing this year were unfamiliar or things he couldn’t do, but when he found himself struggling with the triples he figured he may as well struggle with the quads. Yakov didn’t say anything about it when Yuuri came off the ice at the end of practice, just told him to do what he needed to do to be ready to skate the next day.

Right after practice, Viktor and Yuuri returned to their room to call Mari. “How is she?”

Mari held her up. Ryoko looked fine – a little sleepy, but she was still able to smile at them. “The fever’s still there, but still low. I’m more worried about the rash – if it were diaper rash, it should have gotten better, and it’s getting worse.”

“What’s the plan?” Viktor asked, wrapping Yuuri up in a hug.

“If she’s still got the fever and rash tomorrow morning, I’m taking her to the doctor. Until then, we’re just watching her closely. Anything else happens, I’m taking her to the emergency room.” Mari gave them a half-hearted smile. “I promise I’ll call if something changes. Yuuri, there is nothing you could do by being here.”

As much as Yuuri appreciated it, he couldn’t accept Mari’s lies. “I could help keep an eye on her. If… if something bad does happen, I could be there for it.”

“And if it’s just a cold and some kind of weird reaction to detergent or something, and you miss the Grand Prix Finals, you’d never forgive yourself for that, either. That’s way more likely and you know it, so do what you can to just skate. You’re not the first parent who’s had to be away from a sick kid for work, and you know she’s in good hands.” Mari grinned evilly. “And if you say anything to imply you don’t know that, I will make sure Mom is ready and waiting to explain that to you when you get back.”

Yuuri managed a weak laugh. That was true. Between Mari and his parents, there was no way Ryoko wasn’t being looked after thoroughly.

 

Many of the senior skaters remembered Sochi from being there for the Olympics, but JJ and the junior skaters hadn’t been. Viktor had also been here several times for Nationals, so he led the tour group. The tour was frequently interrupted by stops to shop, and everyone had fun.

When they got back to the hotel, Yuuri got a call from Phichit. “What’s going on? Why am I looking at a story about your mother being a broom-wielding demon who drives customers from her business?”

“What.” Yuuri quickly shot Mari a text. “Anything else out there I should know about while I’m waiting for an explanation?”

“Nah, just the usual about the Saccharine Six. Some talk about you not looking good in today’s practice… is everything okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s Ryoko. I’m worried about her.”

“Oh no! What’s wrong?”

“As far as we know, just a cold, but it’s not clearing up like it should. I’m doing… hang on.” Yuuri read the response from Mari, fury battling with the need to laugh at the ridiculousness. “Okay, Phichit. My mother did chase someone away from Yu-Topia with a broom. He was a reporter who was demanding to see Mari and Ryoko. Mom told him to leave, he wouldn’t, Dad told him to leave, he wouldn’t, so Mom got the broom and told him to start moving.”

Phichit’s laughter broke the indecision, and Yuuri cracked up, too. “Dude, your mom’s awesome. I’ll get the Hamsters going. What the heck is wrong with that reporter? Who demands to see a baby when the baby’s parents aren’t there?”

“The type of sleazeball reporters who like to make up shit about me and Viktor. Probably looking to stir up trouble about how we’re neglecting her.”

 

Mari called again the next day. “I took Ryoko in to the doctor. He’s not exactly worried yet, but he took blood and urine samples to run some tests. She’s home now, but we’re under strict orders to keep an eye on her and bring her back if her fever spikes or something new develops.”

“That’s… good?” It could be a lot worse, anyway. Yuuri forced himself to focus on the positive. If the doctor sent Ryoko home, things couldn’t be too bad.

“Yeah. Kick some ass tonight, Yuuri. You too, Viktor.”

 

It would be a while before they got the chance – men had their short program last out of six events. All the juniors’ short programs, and then senior pairs. Yuuri and Viktor went over to the rink with Yuri to be there to watch the junior ladies. Cécile ended up in fifth, with Japanese skaters taking spots two through four. 

Yuri shoved aside the worries about Ryoko to focus. He had to win this one, and for once, it probably wouldn’t be a cakewalk. He was skating last, and he kept an eye on his friends. Thankfully, everyone skated well, no horrible mistakes. Beating them would be that much sweeter. Guang Hong’s 76 impressed him – that was some pressure on him as he took the ice.

“Go be Natasha and Katya and Ryoko’s hero. Rise to the occasion. Show Yuuri how to do it,” Yakov told him just before he headed for center ice. With that in mind, thinking of his sisters and niece, it was easy to get in character and to soar through his jumps. He killed the short program and he knew it as he headed for the Kiss and Cry. Yakov still had some critiques, but Yuri’s 80 was great. It wasn’t quite a personal best, but it was close, and he wasn’t worried about the free skate.

 

Yuuri could feel the nerves coming back as he got ready to skate. He was skating last, thanks to having the higher short program score between him and Viktor, which was good. He’d know what he had to do. He walked out with Viktor when it was time. Chris had the lead, followed by JJ, then Bin and Michele. None of them were above 90, so Viktor and Yuuri should be top two.

Viktor hugged Yuuri before skating out to center ice. The loneliness and sense of loss flowed through him, and he poured it all out on the ice. Yakov had a few things to rip into him for, but overall, it was a great program. His 94 wasn’t going to challenge Yuuri if Yuuri performed up to his potential, but with Yuuri being distracted like he was, he wasn’t sure what would happen.

Things didn’t start out well. The step sequence was fine, not Yuuri’s best but still head and shoulders above what most others were doing, but his quad toe loop-triple loop combo was shaky. Even his normally reliable triple axel looked a little off, for him. Yakov didn’t hold back while they waited for the score, making Yuuri smile as he listened. 95 was not a bad score, Yuuri would be in first tomorrow, they could relax.

They walked out to face the press together. “Yuuri, there was a story about your mother. Would you like to comment on it?”

“The man had been asked to leave twice and refused to do so. Let me make one thing very clear, and see that this gets spread around to your colleagues: Viktor and I are celebrities, but Ryoko is a baby. We understand that our fans are very interested in her, but we intend to keep her out of the spotlight unless she chooses to follow a path that would lead her to it. Reporters are not welcome to visit her without invitation, and any reporter caught trying to get to her by coming while Viktor and I are away for a competition will have to deal with the many others who will protect her.”

“You looked quite off at practice yesterday, and today’s program was not as good as might have been expected. Is there something going on distracting you?”

Oh, shit, why hadn’t he prepared himself for this question? He shot a panicked look at Viktor. “Yes, someone tried to get to our daughter while we weren’t there,” Viktor said. “Naturally, as her parents, we are both infuriated.”

“It didn’t seem to bother you, either in yesterday’s practice or in today’s competition. Why not?”

“Yu-Topia has always been a safe haven for Yuuri. He was raised there. Of course having that invaded will shake him more than me! We’re hoping that, now that we’ve gotten word out how upset we are and some of the consequences, we’ll be better able to put it behind us and focus entirely on the free skate.” Viktor carefully led Yuuri away from the reporters.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Grand Prix Final of Tears.

Yuuri was better able to focus during practice – after all, he didn’t have anywhere near enough lead to get comfortable that he could beat Viktor. He still rushed off the ice as soon as Yakov signaled to him. “Your sister’s calling you. Grab Vitya and go talk to her.”

Mari looked exhausted. “Ryoko’s sleeping. She didn’t do much of that last night, so I don’t want to disturb her.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Viktor said, wrapping his arms around Yuuri. “I take it there’s news from the doctor?”

“Yeah. Okay. The good news, they’ve been able to rule out things like measles and scarlet fever. The bad news, that means they still don’t know what it is. They’re gonna run some more tests and get back to me, and in the meantime, I just do the same thing. Wait and see, take her in if new symptoms come up or her fever spikes.”

“But you’re definitely thinking more than a cold?” Viktor asked. His arms tightened around Yuuri.

“Yeah. Her bloodwork shows signs of inflammation, and overnight her hands and feet turned red and got swollen. It’s definitely more than a cold, but the doctor’s still saying that the best thing to do is wait for the diagnosis and go from there. He’s got an idea, but he wants to wait for the tests to come back before he says anything.”

“Should we come home?” Yuuri asked.

“No. You two have medals to win. We should know more tomorrow.” Mari got up and walked to her room, turning the camera so they could see Ryoko. “I still don’t want to disturb her, but now that you’re warned, I thought you’d like to see her,” she whispered.

Even like this, Ryoko was beautiful, but the redness of her hands and feet were alarming. “You told the doctor about the redness?”

“Yeah, he thinks it’s related to the rash. The doctor did tell me to keep an eye on her tongue, which should be easy enough with feeding.” Mari walked out of the room. “Any other questions?”

“Yes. How are you holding up? You’re having to do all of this when it’s really our job,” Yuuri said.

“I’m fine. I’ve got support here, and when I agreed to carry and nurse your kid, this is part of that. Don’t worry about me.” Mari smiled at them. “I’m gonna go take a nap. I’ll call when I know something or if anything changes.”

 

Yuri glared at his phone, reading the texts from Yuuri about Ryoko. That was not what he’d wanted to hear. He’d wanted to hear that Ryoko was all better and happy and bubbly again. He put the phone away, refocusing on the competition. Richard came over to him. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t talk about it. You can keep a secret, right?” Richard nodded, so Yuri texted him a quick explanation about Ryoko’s illness. Richard read it and hugged Yuri. “Quit that. I’m okay. Gotta get in character.”

Kenjirou came over. “Is it what I think it is?”

“Yeah.” Yuri gave Kenjirou his phone to read Yuuri’s messages, and Kenjirou’s eyes welled up. “Come on, don’t start that, you have to skate!”

Kenjirou sniffled. “I’m fine. I’ve got this. Don’t worry.” He forced a smile that was nothing like his typical cheer. “I’ll be okay to skate, really!”

He was right – Kenjirou’s free skate went very well, putting him on top of the rankings after Klaus messed up a quad toe loop and never quite recovered. He’d be getting a medal. Guang Hong beat him to take silver or gold, depending on what Yuri did.

Yuri shoved everything out of his mind to skate Marvel’s heroes. Things felt great as he worked through the program, getting good height on the jumps and doing well on his spins. His step sequence, though, got sloppy. There was no way Yakov was going to let that go. Oh well. He finished strong on a triple Salchow and went over to face the music.

Yakov was surprisingly quiet. “What’s wrong? Come on, that step sequence alone should give you enough to yell at me for, and I haven’t done anything to get into trouble over.”

“No, you haven’t.” Yakov started in on him, not stopping until the 153 popped up. Another gold for Yuri. It hit Yuri on the platform while the anthem played that Yakov was probably quiet because he was distracted by Ryoko, too.

 

Yuri found Viktor and Yuuri in the stands and sat with them to watch the rest of the competition. Viktor hugged him. “Congratulations! Next year won’t be so easy for you to win, you know!”

“Yeah, I know. Get off me.” Yuri halfheartedly pushed Viktor away and focused on the ice. Today was the short dance for senior ice dance, and Anya and Christov were skating. “Where’s Georgi, I wonder? Haven’t seen him, and shouldn’t he be here to support Anya?”

“Now that you mention it, good question.” Viktor texted Georgi. He didn’t hear back until after Anya and Christov were done, currently in second. “Anya asked him to stay behind this time. I guess they’re back to having trouble in their relationship.”

“Ugh, he’s going to be moping. Glad I’m not gonna be there long. Poor Mila, though, there’s no way Yakov even tries to get you two back to Saint Petersburg before Nationals, so she gets to deal with Georgi all by herself.”

Jolanda and Masumi ended up in fourth, Anya and Christov in third. Salomat and Stas had a great skate in pairs, although not good enough to get into the medals. The Russian team took silver, to Viktor and Yuri’s joy. The ladies’ short program was the final event of the day. Mila skated second, and her program was good, but not good enough to beat Kei. It was good enough to hold off Sara, and Iona fell on a triple loop that was supposed to be a combo, ending up last. Yuuko, at least, skated very well, putting her in first, and Skye finished in second.

 

The day of the free skate, there was no call from Mari by the time skating was set to begin. Yuri headed for the rink to watch Cécile, after getting a promise from Viktor and Yuuri to text him when they heard anything. Cécile did well, moving up to fourth. Takako won, and the other two Japanese skaters finished third and fifth. Not bad.

Calls to Mari, Yuuri’s parents, Minako, and Takeshi’s dad all went unanswered. Yuuri was a nervous wreck by the time he and Viktor had to leave for the rink. Yuuko came running when she saw them. “I haven’t heard anything from Hasetsu! What’s happening?”

“We don’t know,” Viktor said, as Yuuri fought back tears. “Nobody’s answering phones.”

“Oh, that can’t be good.” Yuuko threw her arms around Yuuri.

Chris came over to them, hugging Viktor. “What is it?”

“If it weren’t for the fact that the next flight that will get us to Hasetsu isn’t leaving until very late tonight, I’d be putting me and Yuuri on a plane. As it is, we may as well stay and try to skate.”

Yuuri’s phone rang, startling everyone. Yuuri answered. “Mom?”

Hiroko’s eyes were red. “I’m so sorry, Yuuri. All of us thought someone else was going to call you and Vicchan and nobody did. We had to take Ryoko to the hospital in Fukuoka. She’s been admitted.”

Yuuri nearly dropped the phone, but Viktor steadied him. “Hang on a minute, we need to find somewhere better to talk,” Viktor told Hiroko. The two of them stepped out into the hall, and Chris found them an empty room to hide in where he would stand guard outside. “Okay, we’re good. What happened?”

“Ryoko’s fever shot up last night, and her tongue swelled up like the doctor told Mari to watch for. We took her to the clinic here, but when the doctor came, he said we needed to go to Fukuoka.”

“Do they have a diagnosis for her?” Yuuri asked.

“Yes. Kawasaki disease.” Viktor looked at Yuuri, and Yuuri shook his head. He wasn’t familiar with it, either. “It’s not a common disease, but since Mari was so diligent, they say she should be fine. They just need her in the hospital because the best treatment is aspirin, which you normally shouldn’t give to babies. They gave her a shot of something that made her feel a lot better already, and they’re hoping they caught it in time to avoid the major complications.”

“What are those?” Yuuri asked. He needed to know what they were looking at. 

“Heart damage or aneurysms in the arteries. The doctor said that those complications are rare to begin with, it’s possible to go without treatment and not have them, so since she’s being treated, he doesn’t expect complications. They’ve checked her heart already, and it’s good.”

Yuuri leaned into Viktor. “Should we come home?”

“It’s up to you two. The free skate’s in a couple hours, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and there’s not a flight we could get on before then, so I’m going to skate,” Viktor said. “But we can skip the exhibition.”

“Let us know when you decide what you’re doing. Once again, I am so sorry we didn’t call sooner. We’ve all had our phones switched off because of being at the hospital…”

“It’s okay, Mom. I don’t think we could have gotten there any faster anyway. Tell Mari thank you and Ryoko to get well and we’ll be there for her as soon as we can.” He hung up and clung to Viktor. “Heart damage.”

“You heard Hiroko. It’s unlikely. That’s the worst case scenario here.” Viktor pulled away to look at Yuuri carefully. “Do you want to withdraw?”

“No. The whole reason we left Ryoko was to skate, so I’m going to skate.” Yuuri wiped away his tears and straightened up. “We should go find Yakov before he explodes.”

“Which will be better for you, facing Yakov or writing the explanation to send out to our friends here?”

Yuuri huffed. “You write it up. I’ll talk to Yakov.”

 

Yakov was indeed close to the edge of explosion, but one look at Yuuri and his entire demeanor softened. “Finally heard from Mari?”

“Not exactly. Vitya and I are going to skate, but we’re leaving tonight. Vitya will be sending you the explanation soon.”

Yakov nodded, looking hard at Yuuri. “Are you sure you want to skate? You look awful. If this were any competition but this one or the Olympics, I would be telling you you’re not skating.”

“Worlds?” There was no way Yuuri could skip Worlds, not with competition slots on the line. The JSF would never forgive him.

“Worlds. I’d take whatever heat the JSF sent over it. It’s up to you, here. If you drop out…”

Yuuri took a deep steadying breath. “If I drop out, there will be a million questions about why, and we’re trying to keep it quiet. If I skate and do badly, there will still be questions, but if I skate and do well, it buys us time to get out of here before the press notices we’re gone.”

Yakov nodded. “Fair enough. Drop quads if you need to – the last thing anyone needs is you getting hurt.”

 

The ladies went before the men, and Yuuri did his best to pay attention. Iona recovered from the short program’s mistakes nicely. It wouldn’t be enough to catch the leaders, but she held her lead through Sara. Mila skated very well, beating Iona, and Kei had a couple uncharacteristic mistakes to guarantee Mila a medal. Skye took the ice on fire, and used her triple axel to propel her up to 147. Yuuko’s skating was hesitant, and although she didn’t mess up any of her elements, her performance score suffered for it, leaving her in second. Skye had gotten her Grand Prix Finals gold medal.

Michele, Bin, and JJ all skated very well, and Christophe earned another Finals medal. Yuuri walked out with Viktor and watched Viktor skate Stammi Vicino. He looked amazing, and it was the best way to distract himself. Watching Viktor skate was just as amazing now as it had been the first time. He couldn’t stick around to wait for the score with Viktor, but when it was announced as a new world record at 201, Yuuri wasn’t surprised a bit.

Of course, now Yuuri had to go skate, and everyone was expecting him to answer with at least a challenge at a world record. It started off badly, as Yuuri fell on his attempt at the quad flip and didn’t get the other jump of his combo attempted. The next combo started well as he got the triple axel done, but he fell again on the triple flip after the half-loop. His layback spin gave him a chance to pull himself together, but he barely held it together. He finished the program without any more falls, but his final jump changed from a quad toe loop to a double – and he touched down out of it to boot.

“My advice: run,” Yakov said when he got to the Kiss and Cry. Yuuri hesitated as he was sitting down, face buried in a stuffed dragon he picked up. “Not from me. From any reporters. They’ll expect you to stay out here and watch Viktor get his medal, so go as soon as your score comes up. Text Viktor where to meet you.”

“But then there’s all sorts of questions about me being a bad sport and not kissing Viktor’s gold,” Yuuri said. “I’m just going to go with ‘no comment’ to every question and keep walking.”

163, for a total just under 259, put him in last by quite a bit. Even knowing it was coming, it was humiliating, and Yuuri thought momentarily about taking Yakov’s advice after all. Viktor’s hug reminded him why he was staying.

The reporters did not want to let them go. They had a million questions – was Yuuri retiring? Was Yuuri hurt? What was happening that they weren’t talking about to anyone? How did Viktor feel about setting a world record and having the story be Yuuri’s meltdown? That one almost got Viktor to turn around and let them have it, but Yuuri tugged him along.

 

They had just enough time at the airport to check in with Mari. “The treatment’s working. Her fever’s down, she doesn’t seem to be in pain. They’re still going to keep her for a while – they’d like to see her rash disappear and her hands and feet go back to normal before they let her go. They checked her heart again and everything’s still good. When you get to Fukuoka, come straight to the hospital. Mom and Dad are here and they’ll take your luggage to Hasetsu with them.”

The good news made the flight easier to take, and Mari was at the airport to meet them. “You’re here?”

“Mom and Dad are with Ryoko. They said I needed to get out of the hospital for a while.” Yuuri took a closer look at Mari, and sure enough, she looked like she hadn’t properly slept in days. “Yeah, I know, I look like crap. I’m fine. Or I will be once I get some sleep.”

Yuuri and Viktor both hugged her tight. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with this without us. Thank you so much for everything.”

“You’re welcome.” Mari got them into a taxi to the hospital, where they finally got to see Ryoko again.

The doctor welcomed them. “I’m sure your family has told you that your daughter has Kawasaki disease. I’m confident that we’ve avoided the worst possibilities. At this point, it’s just a matter of riding it out. At some point, your daughter’s skin will start peeling, and that’s normal. It’s to be expected. She’ll probably have diarrhea and joint pain. We’re doing what we can to minimize that, but we’d like to keep her here at least until the peeling is finished.”

“How long?” Yuuri asked.

“A few days, maybe as much as a week. I know you’ve got Nationals coming up and need to be training, so do what you need to do. You’re welcome here when you can be here, but your sister and parents have done great about making sure someone is here with Ryoko all the time.”


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viktor makes a big decision while Ryoko recovers.
> 
> Timeline: December 2015

Viktor and Yuuri didn’t even bother going to Hasetsu. They just got a hotel room in Fukuoka close to the hospital and checked in. Once inside, Viktor called Yakov and told him everything.

“Hrm. I’m glad to hear she’ll recover. I’ll talk to the officials, but under the circumstances, you could probably skip Nationals and still be selected for Europeans and Worlds. Especially with Georgi missing the Finals, they’ll want you at Worlds for sure.”

Viktor and Yuuri exchanged shocked looks. Skipping Nationals was almost unheard of. “You… you’d let me do that? Skip Nationals?”

“It’ll mean you’ll have to hear rumors about your retirement and probably some grumbling about whoever gets left out to give you a spot deserving to go, but yes. I would. Think about it. I’ll call you when I’ve talked to them.”

Yuuri shuddered. “I don’t have that option. I have to compete. I have to show the JSF that the meltdown in Sochi isn’t me losing my ability to skate.”

“Given the circumstances, I would think they’d listen to reason about your meltdown. It wasn’t you forgetting that you’re one of the best skaters in the world, it was you being seriously worried about your daughter. She’ll be better by Four Continents, so you should be fine.”

 

The Russians approved Viktor’s need to skip Nationals quickly. Japan didn’t. If Yuuri didn’t compete, he would not be considered for Four Continents or Worlds, and would have to compete in a regional competition to earn his way into Nationals. Yakov tried everything he could think of to change their minds, but nothing worked. “I’m sorry, Yuuri. Whatever choice you make, I’ll stand behind you.”

Yuuri had no hesitation. He’d wanted to compete anyway. “I’ll skate. I know you can’t come, you need to be in Russia with Georgi and Mila, but Minako will be there, and Viktor might come.”

“Might?” Viktor yelped. “I’m going!”

“You’re going if Ryoko is doing well enough that I wouldn’t rather have you here with her.” Viktor didn’t look like he’d go along with that, but if Ryoko was still in the hospital, Yuuri didn’t want his family to have to deal with that again. They already owed Mari so much more than they could ever repay, even if she would let them.

“How is she? Any change?” Yakov asked.

“Her fever’s down and she’s sleeping much better, but she still has the redness and the rash. The doctor is pleased with her progress and is still saying that he thinks she’ll be able to leave by the end of the week.” Yakov’s sigh of relief was audible, even with the phone. “How bad is the press getting?”

“Mila had to grab Yuri to keep him from throwing a punch at a reporter who asked if Princess Ryoko was dead. There’s a lot of speculation going on – you two had a fight and went to Japan to file for divorce, naturally. Most people agree that something must be wrong with Ryoko, since your entire family’s been spotted in Fukuoka instead of Hasetsu except her. I don’t see any reason for you guys to tell anyone anything specific, but you might want to make a statement. At the very least, you guys should let Phichit share with the rest of the Hamsters.”

Viktor sighed and nodded. “I’ll talk to Isaak and get a statement drafted. It can go out with the announcement that I’m withdrawing from Nationals.”

 

_To our fans – I know many of you were disappointed when my husband Yuuri and I did not participate in the exhibition gala at the Grand Prix Finals. It was not a decision we made lightly or without cause. As many of you have speculated, our daughter was gravely ill, and Yuuri and I learned of it only hours before the free skate. I am pleased to say that her recovery is proceeding well, but in order to be with her at this time, I will be withdrawing from Russian Nationals. Yuuri will still be competing in Japanese Nationals, which does not require him to leave the country. Please give him all the support you can. Thank you for your support over so many years, and I hope you will continue to support us._

 

Since he didn’t plan to compete, Viktor spent a lot of his time on the ice watching Yuuri instead. Even knowing that Yuuri’s meltdown in Sochi was an aberration, he figured the best thing he could do for Yuuri was to help him find the minor flaws and work through them. Build some confidence back up. Like Yakov did.

When they weren’t on the ice, they were at the hospital. Even knowing it was coming and that it was a sign that her illness was progressing and therefore getting closer to the end, the first time Viktor saw a sheet of skin peel off Ryoko’s foot was distressing. Yuuri sent him outside to collect himself.

Outside, he found Mari curled up in a corner, rocking a little. “Mari? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Mari gave him a smile, so far from her proper smile that Viktor immediately forgot his own distress.

He sat down beside her and reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze. “No, you’re not. How could you be? You’re recovering from a pregnancy, breastfeeding a baby, you were the person who was right there with Ryoko watching the symptoms and making the calls, the one who was here with her when they were doing the tests. You’ve been through a lot, and you’ve done it with a lot of strength and grace, but it’s okay to let out some of that emotion. Would you be more comfortable if I sent Yuuri out?”

“No, you’re my little brother too.” Mari bit her lip, and then the words started pouring out, along with tears. “It’s been hard. Watching Ryoko’s symptoms, taking care of her… I swear I’m not turning into Yuuri, but every time I turned around, I found myself questioning. Was there something I wasn’t doing? Or that I was doing and shouldn’t? Did I do something bad during pregnancy that caused this? Did I make her sick, or just not protect her from something? I know it’s irrational, especially now that we know it’s Kawasaki disease, but it was frustrating and I couldn’t make myself stop. Can’t make myself stop. I promised you and Yuuri that I’d take good care of your daughter, and now here she is in the hospital.”

Viktor pulled Mari into his arms, holding her tight. “You have taken wonderful care of Ryoko. This isn’t your fault. I know it’s not that easy, but maybe hearing it from someone else will let you fight back more effectively.”

“Thanks. Just letting it out has helped some, at least.” Mari reached up and wiped her eyes. “How are you doing? Press being awful?”

“All the good ones have stopped talking about our sudden departure from Sochi, and the bad ones, we’ve learned to ignore. I’m concerned about Yuuri, though. He’s skating well in practice, but that’s when after practice he can come here and be with Ryoko. Being in Hokkaido away from Ryoko, where the press will be expecting access to him? It’s going to be bad.”

“Which is one good reason not to break down like this in front of him. I don’t want him worried about me, too.” Mari sat up and pulled away. “Thanks for this. I needed that. Why are you out here?”

“Ryoko’s started peeling. I thought I was prepared to see it, but I wasn’t.” 

“Oh. Good. One step closer to getting her home.” Mari got to her feet. “You ready to go back in?”

“Yes, I think so.” Good timing, too, as Ryoko was starting to look for her next meal. Watching her feed helped soothe away the last of Viktor's worries about her, at least for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm at the library posting this. Just as I finished formatting and such, a baby started singing. It was so cute. Thought I'd share.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri visits his sisters.
> 
> Timeline: mid-December 2015

Dealing with the press Viktor and Yuuri had left behind was seriously irritating, especially since he didn’t know much about what was going on. Yuri scowled at the reporters blocking his way into the rink. “Go away. They’re on a plane right now, I don’t even know anything to tell you.”

“You must know something. Why didn’t you go with them?”

“Because I have an exhibition to skate and then I’m getting on my own plane to go visit my sisters for Christmas. Viktor and Yuuri don’t celebrate because of Nationals, but Natasha and Katya do, and I want to be there with them for it.”

“But…”

“I have an exhibition to skate!” Yuri snapped. “Get out of my way. I need to get dressed and warmed up unless you want to see me hurt myself skating an exhibition. I do not have time for you idiots.” Yuri pushed his way forward, but didn’t make it very far. He shut out the questions as much as possible while he tried to press on.

“So you don’t even care if Princess Ryoko is dead?”

That was it. Yuri turned to see a very smug reporter sticking his microphone out. He drew back to hit the guy, but felt a hand grab his arm. “Yuri! There you are.” Oh, thank fuck. It was Mila come to rescue him. “Yakov’s losing his shit. I’ve texted him what’s keeping you and he’s on his way out here. I would not want to be any reporter he finds harassing his skater…”

That helped thin the crowd enough to where Mila and Yuri were able to get through. As soon as they were inside, Mila hugged Yuri. “Yakov’s not mad. Well, he’s pissed, but he’s not mad at you.”

“Good. Get off me, hag.” Yuri jerked away and headed for the changing room. Yakov caught him just outside, but all he wanted was to check to make sure Yuri was okay. He was.

Yuuko and Minami came over to warm up beside him. “They’re awful. I’m sorry,” Yuuko said. “Coach Nishigori has asked a security guard to escort the two of us back to the hotel, do you want to come with us?”

“Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks.” A security guard would be better able to handle the crowd. As it worked out, there were two guards, so the three of them were able to get back to the hotel in peace. The guards waited for them while they got dressed for the banquet, and then escorted them to that, as well. It was super boring, and Yuri almost wished he’d skipped it. Almost. He couldn’t afford to, because of the chance to talk to sponsors.

 

Getting out of Sochi felt great. In New York, people wouldn’t pay nearly as much attention to him. At least, that was the expectation. When he cleared airport security, it was to find a very annoyed Irina glaring at a couple reporters. Great. “Hi, Mama.”

Irina hugged him. “Yuri! Thank god. Can you tell these assholes what’s going on with Ryoko so we can go home?”

Yuri glared at the reporters. “I just got off an eleven-hour flight, what makes you think I know any better than you what’s going on with Ryoko? When Viktor and Yuuri are ready to tell you their daughter’s private business, they will. In the meantime, FUCK. OFF.” He stormed toward baggage claim, changing direction to point out the reporters to a passing security guard.

Irina caught up with him at the carousel. “I really should be telling you off for that, but honestly, they deserved it. I’m just glad I didn’t bring the girls.”

“Where are they?”

“Natasha has school, Katya’s at her sitter’s. Boris had a meeting he couldn’t get out of.” Like Yuri cared why Boris wasn’t there. “Be ready for Natasha to talk your ear off about school. She’s loving it.”

 

Yuri found two tiny blonde girls running at him when Irina got home from picking them up. That was new. Natasha, as promised, spent the next ten minutes telling Yuri all about school – her teacher was nice, Susana was still her best friend but she had lots of other friends there now, she was learning a lot of stuff. “The teacher got mad at me when I said I knew how to write my name already. She said I wasn’t writing it right. I was, I was just writing it in Russian instead of English. It’s so weird. At school I’m learning English letters, and Papa is working with me at home on Russian letters. Why do they have some of the same letters that make different sounds?”

“I don’t know. It’s annoying, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” And then Natasha was off again. Eventually she stopped. “I’m sorry, Katya. You should tell Yuri about your stuff too!”

Katya didn’t have as much to say, but she was in music appreciation lessons that she loved and dance classes that were almost as good and an art class that she didn’t like much because the teacher kept yelling at her any time she said something in Russian. She’d tried just not talking at all, but that got her yelled at, too.

When she was finished, it was Natasha’s turn again. “Our class is having a holiday party on Friday and we’re supposed to invite our parents but Mama and Papa can’t come so I asked if I could bring my brother instead and Miss Williams said you could come if you wanted to and said to ask you if you wanted to come a little early and tell our class about Russian Christmas traditions.”

Yuri bit back the fury at Irina and Boris for not being able to go – what was so important they had to miss something like this? Of course he was going. “You know there’s not much to Russian Christmas, right? We don’t really celebrate it in Russia.”

“I know, but you can tell them that. So you’re coming?”

“I’m coming.”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!” Natasha threw her arms around Yuri again.

 

The holiday party was not what Yuri expected. He’d thought it would all be about Christmas, but there was a lot of stuff for Hanukkah, too, and some stuff for a Chinese winter solstice holiday. Yuri quickly changed his planned speech to include talking about how Russian Jews celebrated Hanukkah. Everyone kept looking at him funny, until finally one of the parents came over. “Why aren’t you in school?”

“I work with a tutor instead of going to a normal school, so I can plan my time off however I want. I just finished a big competition and Christmas is important to Natasha so I come here for a couple weeks in December.” Which reminded him that he needed to talk to Boris and Irina about that.

“Comp… wait a minute, I thought you looked familiar, you’re Yuri Plisetsky!” The mom started squealing.

“And right now, I’m Natasha’s big brother and _nothing else._ Understood?”

“Oh, of course, I wouldn’t… of course, you don’t want attention drawn to you, I’m just so excited. You’re so famous!”

On the way home, Natasha looked up at Yuri. “I didn’t know Hanukkah was a thing in Russia.”

“It’s a pretty recent thing, for a long time Jews weren’t allowed to practice their religion. Grandpa’s parents were Jewish, but they weren’t allowed to teach him any of the stuff that goes with it. It’s still not a big thing there, but Grandpa likes to watch the mayor light the first candle on the city menorah.”

 

After Natasha and Katya were in bed, Yuri found Boris and Irina. “We need to talk.”

“If this is about us not being able to go to the holiday party, just don’t,” Irina said.

“Not about that. It’s about me moving up to seniors next year.”

Boris raised an eyebrow. “There’s a question about that? You’re good enough, you’ll be old enough, so why wouldn’t you?”

“I’m moving up. Which means that next year, I’ll be competing in Russian Nationals, which happens over American Christmas, which is what I wanted to talk to you guys about so could you please stop jumping to conclusions?”

“Yuri,” Irina warned.

“I know how much Natasha and Katya like having me here, but I can’t come, and I was wanting to talk to you guys and figure out if there was something we could do.”

“Of course there’s something we can do,” Irina said. “Yakov will let you come out here for New Year’s. You should be competing in Europeans so you may not be able to stay until Russian Christmas, but we can split the difference and celebrate Christmas at New Year’s. We’ll remind the girls why you’re not here like usual when it gets close to time. Depending on exact schedules for school and Nationals, we might even be able to take them to Russia to watch you compete.”

Yuri’s jaw dropped. “Sounds like you’ve thought about it already.”

“Yes, we have,” Boris said. “Natasha’s favorite part of Christmas is that you come to visit, so we’ve been thinking about how to make that happen with your new obligations.”

“I wish Russia would go back to doing Nationals in January like they did when I was skating,” Irina added. “It would make this much easier.”

“I do, too,” Yuri muttered. He could come see his sisters for Christmas, _and_ there would be less dramatics from the Drama Kings.


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viktor skipping Nationals turns out not to be the biggest story there. Kenjirou finds his inner Yuri. Ryoko is adorable.
> 
> Warnings: infidelity rumors (for once, NOT Viktuuri)!

Taking Ryoko home was once again a moment of triumph. She was much better, her symptoms were all gone or nearly gone, and all that remained was that she was sleeping more than would normally be expected. “Poor girl, she’s only three months old today and she’s already had to fight a tough opponent,” Hiroko said as they got her settled in her crib. “Fortunately she has her fathers’ strength.”

Viktor squeezed Yuuri’s hand. “Which we’ll show everyone at Nationals, right, Yuuri?”

“Right…” Yuuri reached down to stroke his daughter’s head. “I have to get back on the ice and show that I’m better than what I showed at the Grand Prix Finals.” He started coughing. “I should probably get to the rink. Yuuko and Kenjirou are expecting me.”

 

Practice was torture – Yuuri was exhausted after only an hour of work. He tried to force himself to keep going, to push through, but then Yuuko noticed he was shivering. “Yuuri, are you feeling okay?”

“No. I don’t have a choice, though. I have to train, we’re leaving for Nationals in two days and I feel like I’ve barely skated since the Finals.” He cut off for more coughing. “I’ll live.”

“Look, I know the JSF is pressuring you to come skate, but that looks like flu,” Coach Nishigori said. “I know you won’t want to go get diagnosed, because if it is flu you’ll probably have to withdraw, but you need to be sure so that you can take precautions around Ryoko. The last thing anyone wants is for her to get sick again.”

Yuuri froze. Put that way, it was obvious what he needed to do. If he didn’t skate again this season, he could come back next season and show the JSF that they badly overreacted. If he got Ryoko sick again, so soon after her recent illness… it was unthinkable, putting his daughter in danger over a competition. “I’ll go to the doctor.”

Sure enough, the flu diagnosis was confirmed. They gave him a prescription for antiviral drugs and advice for how to keep from spreading the disease to Ryoko. “If she shows any symptoms, bring her in as soon as possible. I know it will be hard for you, but you need to be very careful about contact with her for the next two days. Once the drugs have had time to work, it will be safer, but you should still be careful.”

 

Viktor handled the calls to Yakov and the JSF so that Yuuri could sleep. When he woke up, Viktor was beaming. “What?”

“I didn’t call the JSF. Yakov did. Once he was done sharing his thoughts on the stress you’ve been under since Finals, training so hard while trying to care for a sick daughter, and how that likely contributed to you getting ill, they said that they would put you on Four Continents and Worlds teams, under the condition that if you don’t medal in Four Continents, you’ll withdraw from Worlds. Obviously, Yakov officially withdrew you from competition on the spot.”

Yuuri groaned. “So I’m out of Nationals, but there’s going to be intense pressure on me at Four Continents and Worlds?”

“Four Continents shouldn’t be bad. You don’t have to get gold, but you haven’t missed gold in years. As long as you’re skating somewhere close to your potential, you’ll medal easily and keep your spot in Worlds.” Viktor sat down and stroked Yuuri’s hair. “Worlds, the pressure won’t be any more or less than usual. At least it’s this year and not next, with the Olympics on the line!”

“Yeah.” Yuuri groaned again and burrowed under the covers. “I’m going back to sleep.”

“Not yet you’re not!” Viktor pulled the covers back. “Your mother made you soup and you are going to eat as much as you can. _Then_ you can go back to sleep.”

 

By the time skating actually started, Yuuri was feeling enough better that he could come out and watch with everyone else. Even better, the drugs had had enough time to take effect, meaning he was allowed to hold Ryoko again for short periods. He was given the job of sitting with Ryoko while they watched Japan’s men’s short program. Thanks to being ill for a significant portion of her life, Ryoko had fallen a little behind in developing motor skills. Now that she was well, she was making rapid progress in catching up, and watching her try to push herself up when she was on her tummy was so cute. Viktor had his phone out taking pictures, completely ignoring the skating.

“Look, Ryoko! It’s Kenjirou! You know him.” Yuuri pointed to the TV, and Ryoko looked at the screen curiously and smiled as the camera focused on Kenjirou’s face. When it switched to a long shot as he started skating, she got distracted by her fingers.

Kenjirou did incredibly well, and Yuuri wished he could have been there to congratulate him in person. As it was, he settled for texting. At the end of the short program, he was in fourth, behind first-place Sachio, Togai, and Masaki.

During ice dance and pairs, Mari came and got Ryoko for feeding. “How are you doing?”

“Good. I hope Anya will forgive me if I go to bed instead of staying up to watch her, though.”

Viktor stared at Yuuri. “We can record all of Russian nationals and watch in the morning. That way Ryoko can watch with us!”

“Probably a good idea. Are we going to watch the whole thing, or just watch our friends?”

“Probably just watch our friends unless Yakov tells me we need to watch others.”

Ryoko was starting to doze off by the final group of the ladies’ short program, but Viktor woke her up when Yuuko came on. “Look! Who’s that? That’s your aunt Yuuko!”

“Ba!” Once again, Ryoko focused on the screen as long as the camera was primarily on Yuuko’s face, but lost interest when it zoomed out.

Yuuko skated beautifully, but not well enough to put her in first. That went to Iona, with Kei third, Takako fourth, and Sako fifth. Once that was over, they put Ryoko to bed properly.

Yuuko called as Yuuri was just about to get into bed. “Did you see Kenjirou? He’s so happy!”

“He should be, that was great! How’s Sako? She can’t be happy with how she did today…”

“She’s not. She’s determined to come back tomorrow, and I hope she does, but I don’t know. Takako is really good.”

“Ouch. I hope she’ll at least get picked for Four Continents. How bad has the press been for you?”

“About what I expected… one of them accused you of faking flu to hide the fact that you want to be with your daughter while she’s dying, and it turns out Kenjirou has something in common with Yuri. If Takeshi hadn’t grabbed him, I think he’d have broken that reporter’s nose.”

“Heh. I almost wish I’d been there to see that! I can’t imagine him violent.”

“For the most part, they’ve been fine, really. Morooka asked me to pass along his sympathies for your illness and wish you a speedy recovery.”

 

Rykov looked to be taking full advantage of this window of opportunity – next year, with Viktor and Yuri both there, medaling would be difficult. He ended the short program two points ahead of Georgi. Anya and Christov were in the lead in ice dance, but not by as much as would normally be expected. Viktor was guessing Georgi and Anya were still struggling.

In Japan, Sachio skated his way to a national championship, followed by Togai earning silver and Kenjirou bronze. Yu-Topia nearly exploded in pride when they realized Kenjirou was going to medal. “Kenjirou’s one of ours, and he’s not even in seniors, and he got a medal!” Yuuri explained to Ryoko. “Isn’t that great?” Ryoko answered with giggles, and it was a good thing that ice dance was on next because Viktor had gone into a puddle and couldn’t watch.

By the time the ladies were on, Viktor had recovered well enough to watch. Sako did better today, passing Takako, but not catching up to Kei or Yuuko or Iona. Kei had a brilliant skate giving her the gold, Yuuko took silver, and Iona bronze.

 

Once again, they recorded Russian Nationals and watched the highlights the next day. Mila took a huge lead in the ladies’ short program, with Raisa second and Alena third. Men’s started out fine, some of Russia’s skaters out for blood since there was a chance to get on the podium and therefore taking a lot more chances than they usually would. Saviliy ended up being the winner there, holding the lead with only Georgi and Rykov to skate.

After seeing so many people doing well, it was a huge shock to see Georgi struggling. Like Yuuri, he’d always hung his hat on his presentation scores, and that was where he was having the most trouble today. His technical elements were just fine, but his presentation…

Viktor didn’t wait for the score before he was calling Mila. “Yeah, I’m not surprised. It’s been drama central up here.”

“What happened?”

“Well, Georgi and Anya seemed to be making a little progress toward getting over this fight, but then a reporter asked Georgi about if he would skip Nationals to look after his child and Georgi said he would without question. They got into a huge fight, and Anya said that if Georgi wanted kids so bad maybe they should break up and he should go to his soulmate, she’s eighteen now. So the good news for you is that your absence and Ryoko’s illness are no longer the big stories, everyone’s fishing for information about Georgi’s soulmate and whether they are, in fact, breaking up.”

“Are they?”

“Seems like. Georgi’s pissed about the crack about his soulmate, since he’s said all along he has no intention of leaving Anya for them, and Anya’s pissed that Georgi won’t accept she doesn’t want kids, and now they’re not speaking to each other and there’s a rumor going around that Anya slept with Christov last night.”

“Did she?” Viktor would never have pegged Anya as a cheater, but with the drama… and Christov wouldn’t mind the chance to sabotage Georgi and Anya’s relationship, certainly.

“I have no idea, not gonna ask either of the people who’d know for sure. Yakov’s furious, of course, but there’s not really anyone to let it out on so he’s taking it out on everyone. I actually feel a little sorry for a couple reporters who tried to talk to him this morning.” Viktor flinched as Mila’s laugh tinkled over the line. He was suddenly so grateful that he wasn’t at Nationals, and especially grateful that Yuuri wasn’t. “I don’t know if you’ve seen yet, but Rykov beat Georgi by a lot. Georgi still got silver, by a lot, but considering he came in expecting to get gold… do you know when the last time Russia had a men’s champion who wasn’t coached by Yakov?”

“No… it’s been me, and before me it was Misha, and before that Kesar…”

“Yeah. So, of course, someone’s started talking about maybe it’s time for Yakov to hang it up. He couldn’t get Yuuri through the meltdown and two of his skaters are skipping Nationals and now Georgi’s imploding… it’s bull, it was just a perfect storm of awful that Yakov’s handled as well as any coach could, but be ready to come out swinging if reporters come after you and Yuuri.”

“So what do you know about Georgi’s soulmate?”

“Well, obviously, a girl who probably turned eighteen recently. There’s a lot of those, though. I haven’t wanted to ask Georgi and set him off yet, but I probably will soon.”

“Thanks. Good luck today! Sorry to wake you up so early…”

“It’s okay, I was awake anyway. How’s Ryoko doing?”

“Much better!”

“Better enough that if I drag Georgi out there for New Year’s, it would be a good time for us to come meet her? If he and Anya really are breaking up, I think Georgi might just need something like that.”

“Yes, I think so. Make sure to clear it with Yakov first, of course!”

 

Japan’s teams were announced that afternoon. As promised, Yuuri was going to both Four Continents and Worlds. Four Continents he was going with Sachio and Kenjirou, and Worlds with Sachio and Togai. Yuuko, Kei, and Iona were assigned to both competitions.

Mila easily won gold in Russia, with Raisa second and Alena third. Russia’s teams had been announced by the time Viktor and Yuuri caught up. Despite Georgi’s meltdown, he, Rykov, and Viktor were all going to both Europeans and Worlds, along with Mila, Raisa, and Alena.

Mila called before the exhibition was due to happen. “Yakov, Lilia, Georgi, and I will be out there in a couple days. Yakov’s already called Yuri and gotten his flight switched to come here instead. Is that okay?”

“Of course! We can’t wait to see you!”

“So, drama updates since I know you won’t believe anything you hear in the press: Anya denies sleeping with Christov but Georgi doesn’t believe her. They have officially broken up. Georgi is hoping that they’ll get back together once they’ve had some time apart to cool down and think things over, Anya says she is done and Georgi needs to move on. She’s not going to go to her soulmate, and Georgi says he’s not going to go to his. He won’t tell me anything about her.”


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Georgi breaks down. Viktor is a good friend.
> 
> Timeline: December 2015

Yuri got to Ryoko first and gave her a big hug. “You scared me, dragonling. Don’t ever do that again!” Ryoko giggled at him. He turned to the others. “Who’s first?”

Lilia got to hold Ryoko first, then Yakov. Mila cuddled her briefly before handing her to Georgi, who stared at the baby in his arms for a few seconds. Then he handed her to Viktor and headed outside.

“Okay, that was weird, Georgi spent the whole flight talking about how much he was looking forward to meeting her,” Mila said.

Viktor handed Ryoko back to Yuri. “I’ll go after him.” He hurried to follow Georgi and found him outside, sobbing. He sat beside his friend. “Hey.”

Georgi wiped his eyes and fixed Viktor with a glare. “If you’re out here to tell me I should go to my soulmate, _don’t_.”

“I wasn’t going to say that. You’ll be surprised to hear it, but I don’t think you should go to your soulmate just yet. She deserves a real chance, not being used as a rebound.” Viktor wanted to be offended by Georgi’s assumption, but he really couldn’t. “I’m just out here to make sure you’re okay, or offer an ear if you’re not and you want to talk about it.”

Georgi didn’t start right away. That was okay. He also didn’t tell Viktor to go away, so Viktor stayed beside him. Eventually, Georgi looked up again. “I miss Anya. I had a dream life that I thought I was going to have forever, and holding Ryoko just made it hit me. I needed to get out of there.”

“I’m sorry. I know you love her a lot, but something this big was going to tear the two of you apart eventually. You need to accept that, you know.”

Georgi sniffled. “I thought she’d change her mind. How do you not love kids?”

“Just because some people change their mind doesn’t mean all of them will. I did, because of Yuuri coming into my life, but not everyone does. It may be that Anya doesn’t have a problem with kids in theory, she just doesn’t want to be responsible for any. Did you ever ask her why she didn’t want to be a mother?”

“No… it wasn’t anything to do with pregnancy, I know that, or at least it wasn’t just that. I guess I just thought that eventually, as our friends starting having kids, whatever her problem is would seem less problematic and she’d come around.” Georgi wiped away a few tears leaking out. “I can’t imagine it would start any different if I decided to deal with my soulbond. At the very least, not for the next three years.”

“Why three years? She’s eighteen now, isn’t she? I could understand four years, getting through university, but why three?”

“She’s eighteen. He’s not. He’s a couple months away from fifteen. No kids until he’s old enough to be their legal guardian if needed. Three years.”

“Wait, what?” Viktor’s jaw dropped. “Two soulmates?”

“Yeah, and they were both children when I had my dream. They’re soulmates, too, so if I stepped back and stayed with Anya, I honestly didn’t see the big deal there. They’d have each other. It’s possible that she’s made contact with him, but I don’t know.”

“You haven’t talked to her?”

Georgi shook his head. “I thought about reaching out, if nothing else I’m curious what happened in her dream. I couldn’t remember exactly when she turned eighteen, though. It’s recently. Less than a month.” He huffed ruefully. “Besides, I don’t have contact information, and I can’t come up with a good reason to get it from her brother without explaining.”

“I wonder why she hasn’t tried to contact you. Would you have told her not to?”

Georgi shrugged. “I don’t know. A year ago, I would have. Since this thing with Anya started… I don’t know. I’m not exactly thinking straight these days.” He covered his face with his hands. “Mila probably told you I didn’t accept Anya’s word that she didn’t sleep with Christov. That was so stupid. I don’t think she did, they’ve never had that kind of relationship, and Christov is gay.”

Speaking of. “How do you feel about one of your soulmates being male? I know Anya can’t be the only person you’ve ever been attracted to, but any guys?”

“You know, from a lot of people, that would come across as fishing for a compliment,” Georgi teased. “It weirded me out at first, I’ll admit. Obviously in the dream I wasn’t attracted to him, he was five. And with Anya, I haven’t really been looking around, but… gotta admit, some of the guys we skate with? Hot. Chris, for one.”

“Don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me who they are?” Long shot, probably. Georgi wasn’t planning on going to them, he had no reason to break nine years of silence.

“What, the hot guys? You could figure that one out just by looking around at Worlds.” Viktor laughed, and Georgi didn’t give him the chance to clarify. “Don’t tell anyone, especially not Phichit or Yuri. Tiger Yuri, not your soulmate Yuuri. You can tell him, I guess.”

“Phichit I get, but why not Yuri?”

“Because the guy is his friend Richard, and I’d really rather not deal with Yuri kicking me over whatever choices we end up making when he has his dream or Kannika reaches out to us.”

Viktor frowned in thought. “Kannika… that name sounds familiar.”

“The social media obsession would be enough, but the real reason I don’t want you to tell Phichit is that if Kannika wants him to know, she can tell him herself. She’s his sister.”

“Wow. That’s… yes, Phichit does not need to hear this from me. Yuri either.”

Georgi stood up, so Viktor rose with him. “Thanks. For the company, and for not being a dick about any of this. Let's go try this meet your baby dragon thing again.”


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training and skating and dadding.
> 
> Timeline: January 2016

Viktor threw himself hard into practice. Ryoko was all right, Yuuri was all right, but Viktor couldn’t get over how close he’d come to losing them both in less than a month. Yes, flu was rarely deadly in someone of Yuuri’s age and overall health, and Kawasaki disease was almost never fatal when caught early. It still choked him up every time he saw them, especially when he saw Yuuri and Ryoko playing together. Yuuri was born to be a dad. Viktor’s programs for the year had taken on a whole new layer of meaning for him.

The ice had always been Viktor’s haven, where he went when he needed to shut everything else out. Thankfully, it still worked, even when Yuuri was on the ice practicing with him. Viktor was careful not to push himself too hard, but he’d decided to start working on a quad loop. It forced him to focus and really think about what he was doing. It was exactly what he needed. Yakov had been skeptical, but he agreed to it readily enough, and he certainly wasn’t going to argue with Viktor working hard.

Yuuri was still not back to 100% on the ice, but he’d started spending a lot of time on his triple axel. After a few days, Viktor couldn’t help himself anymore. “Why? The triple axel’s been your best jump as long as I’ve known you!”

Yuuri took a long gulp of water. “Which makes me the perfect person to go for the quad, don’t you think? I’ve always been good at axel jumps, even when I was struggling with Lutzes and loops and flips of the same level. As long as I’m careful and don’t push to where I hurt myself, Yakov thinks it’s worth at least trying for.”

Viktor’s jaw dropped, and he dove forward, hugging Yuuri. “I love it! I can’t wait to see you shut up the people who doubt you by landing a quad axel in competition!”

“It’ll be a while,” Yuuri said. “Right now, I’m focusing on getting as much height and distance with the triple as I can while still controlling the jump. I haven’t even started trying to get the extra rotation.”

“You’ll get there! I know you will. Not this season, but next season, maybe!” Viktor hugged Yuuri again, and then skated off to get back to work because he could see Yakov about to start yelling.

 

When Viktor wasn’t working on his own stuff, he was busy helping Yuri work on a quad. Yuri had chosen to go for the salchow first, and was making very good progress on it. He would definitely have it ready by next October, if that’s when he needed it. With hard work, he could probably have the toe loop, too. Yuri had made no secret that he wanted to join his adopted family in winning gold in the Grand Prix, and with both jumps, Viktor saw no reason why he couldn’t. Even with only one, if his programs were designed to work with his skills, he should be fine for qualifiers, and he could get the other jump in by Finals or Worlds.

As a break, Yuri was given the job of teaching the triplets a Lutz jump. Lutz, naturally, got it right away; Axel and Loop took a little longer. Loop pouted a little about it. “I didn’t get the loop first.”

Axel shrugged. “Lutz has gotten all the jumps first. She’ll probably get the axel too. Show Yuri your scratch spin!”

Loop took off, getting a little speed up before going into a beautiful spin. “I take it she’s the one who’s good at spins?”

“Yeah. She’s also Minako’s favorite.” Axel beamed watching Loop try the Lutz jump again and fall. “I’m the best at the basic skating skills and putting stuff together. Mom says we’re all good enough she’d support us getting into serious training.”

“I’d agree with her!” Viktor said. “Every skater has strengths and weaknesses. The trick is figuring out how to use them.”

“Mom still wants to know how Loop ended up taking after Yuuri,” Lutz said.

“At least taking after Yuuri is a good thing!” Axel added. “He’s a good skater.”

“Yeah. He is.” Viktor grinned at Yuri rolling his eyes. “Yuri seems to think you girls should get back to work instead of talking, though!” He winked at them. “He’s just jealous none of you take after him.”

“No, I’m okay with that,” Yuri said. “They get to have fun with the learning part. Nobody needs them to be champions from their first competition. More worried about what kind of pressure ends up on Ryoko.”

“She’s never going to have to worry about money, the way you and your grandfather did,” Viktor said.

“No, she just has to live up to the Katsuki-Nikiforov legend. It’s not fair, but it’s true. You know the press are going to be horrible at it unless she either doesn’t skate or ends up a champion.”

 

With Ryoko better, Phichit poked Yuuri on FaceTime. “The Hamsters are getting restless, you know.”

“We just put up a couple new pictures last week. They can’t be too upset about us not wanting to put up pictures while she was sick, can they?” The new pictures were, in Yuuri’s biased opinion, exceptionally cute. For they most part, they’d gone uncontroversial, but some controversy had sprung up over her posing with Makkachin and Vicchan in a poodle t-shirt. Even that controversy was dumb – Viktor and Yuuri were accused of forcing her to be a poodle lover. Who had to force anyone to be a poodle lover when you had Makkachin and Vicchan around? They had a picture of her with Potya that they were going to put up with the next batch.

“It’s not that. It’s specific pictures. No one was going to hassle you while she was sick, of course, but everyone’s looking forward to pictures of Ryoko on Ice.”

“She’s a baby! She can’t even stand on her own, we are not putting ice skates on her!”

“Well, no, but there’s no reason you can’t bundle her up and take her out on the ice! Come on, you know that everyone wants to see it, and the controversy is gonna be stupid.”

“It always is,” Yuuri grumbled. “I’ll talk to Viktor.”

Viktor agreed readily that it was probably time they got her out on the ice, so they got Ryoko bundled up carefully, including her new kitty-eared winter hat. Ryoko spent the whole time giggling and looking around, and Yuuri got the pictures to Phichit quickly.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Russian Junior Nationals. Yuri finds a reason to care about his score, since none of the other skaters were going to give him one.
> 
> Timeline: January 21-22, 2016

Lilia, Georgi, and Mila left the same time Yakov and Yuri did. Yuri wasn’t all that interested in going, but he didn’t have a good excuse to skip Junior Nationals and still get named to Junior Worlds or the Youth Olympics. He didn’t even have a Saviliy this year, someone who was still in Juniors who would challenge him even a little. This was going to be the world’s most boring competition.

“Don’t write this one off,” Yakov warned him after practice. “You’re going to win unless you have a major meltdown, but next year…”

“Is next year. For this year, who cares if I win by five, fifteen, or thirty?” Even the sponsors wouldn’t really care. It’s not like Yuri was going to put on a bad skate.

“I care!” Yuri rolled his eyes. Of course Yakov cared, but did it really matter? Yakov saw it and started ranting. “You’ve heard the talk about me since Georgi didn’t win Nationals and Viktor didn’t go. We all know it’s bullshit, especially since Mila did win, but you getting lazy and not showing up will just add fuel to the fire!”

If Yakov had slapped Yuri, it probably would have startled him less. He hadn’t thought the talk was bothering Yakov at all – the only thing he’d ever said about it in Hasetsu was to let them talk, if they were talking about him they weren’t talking about Ryoko or Georgi and Anya. The idea that it was seriously rattling Yakov had never occurred to Yuri. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll take this seriously.”

“Good. That’s all I’m asking for.” Yakov stormed off, leaving Yuri shaken and confused.

 

Yuri kept his music on loud enough to drown out any scores being announced. He didn’t watch any skates, didn’t look at the scoreboard. None of those scores mattered. What mattered was that Yuri was going to go out and show the entire skating world what happened when the best coach got hold of the best athlete.

He couldn’t avoid hearing the announcement that the skater before him had made a 73, but he didn’t pay any attention to it. Yakov was looking at him strangely. “Are you all right, Yuri?”

“I’m fine. Sit back and enjoy this.” Yuri was called to center ice before he could see Yakov’s reaction. The triple axel went well, and his combo spin was as close to perfect as he could imagine. Everything clicked, everything flowed, and as Yuri came to a stop after the last jump, he was looking forward to hearing what Yakov had to say.

“What was that?” Yakov asked.

Yuri rolled his eyes. “You told me to take this seriously and skate my best, I followed orders. What do you mean what was that?”

“Hmpf. I certainly can’t argue with you that you skated your best today.” Yakov mentioned a couple minor things about the step sequence, but there wasn’t much to say about the skate. Even so, both Yakov and Yuri were surprised by the 85 that popped up for Yuri’s score. “In seniors, with a quad, you should be able to get over 90 when you skate well,” Yakov said.

Yuri was still smiling from that comment all through getting showered and changed. 90 in the short program was a marker of being one of the best in seniors. The smile dropped when he saw the reporters waiting for him outside. He so did not want to deal with this.

“You’ve been in Hasetsu the last few weeks. How’s Ryoko doing?”

“If you’ve done any sort of research at all, you’d have seen the recent pictures. She is great. She’s perfect. You want anything else, talk to her parents.”

“But aren’t you considered part of the family?”

“I am, but Viktor and Yuuri have made it very clear that they are Ryoko’s parents. That means they’re the ones you need to ask about her. If I ever have kids, I’d expect them to tell you to ask me anything about them.”

“If you have kids? Do you want to?”

“Depends what happens with my soulmate, but yeah, kids would be nice to have.” If his soulmate wanted kids and Yuri could trust them not to abandon them, he’d love it.

“There’s been talk about Yakov starting to lose his touch, thanks to some unusually bad performances by his skaters lately. Do you think what you did here is enough to change that?”

“I think the people saying that are idiots. Viktor set a world record at the Grand Prix Finals. Mila took a medal there, and then won at Nationals. I won the Junior Grand Prix Finals and should win here. I don’t know of anything any coach can do to keep a skater from getting sick or having family emergencies.”

“What about Georgi?”

“What about him? Everyone freaked out the year Misha missed the Finals, and then he came back and medaled at the Olympics in his last skate. Down years happen, and I expect to see Georgi come back strong at Europeans and Worlds.”

“When are you going back to see Lorenzo?”

Yuri hoped his disdain didn’t show. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Romana lately. I’ve met Lorenzo, he’s a baby, not much point to me going back until he’s old enough to have some idea who I am.”

“Then why did you spend so much time in Hasetsu? Ryoko is close to the same age as Lorenzo.”

“I spend enough time at Viktor and Yuuri’s house that they think it’s best for Ryoko to get used to me being around. With Lorenzo, at best I’m going to be the big brother who visits a couple times a year.”

 

Yakov didn’t give him any grief for his answers, and Viktor called to thank Yuri for telling the press off for fishing for information again. Yuri still had to go out and skate a free skate that would put another nail in the coffin of Yakov losing his touch, made easier when he heard one of the girls talking about how if Yakov was over the hill, Mila would be beatable when she got up to seniors.

Performance scores tended to be generous at Nationals, but Yuri was not going to slack off. Once again, he didn’t pay any attention to any of the other skaters. He’d checked them out before, and no one here could touch him unless he fucked up. Yakov gave him a wary look. “You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”

“How can I show everyone what a great coach you are if I go against your rule of no quads in juniors? I’ll just have to win without. Again.” He skated out to center ice when called, and took off with the music. He nailed the Biellmann spin, landed his jumps cleanly, and when he got to the step sequence he’d messed up in Sochi, it went much better. He could still clean it up some, but it was still good. Yakov nitpicked the step sequence and had some advice on the jumps, but 161 was huge. Let anyone say Yakov was losing his touch now.


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Europeans.
> 
> Timeline: end of January 2016

Leaving Ryoko for a competition was even harder this time than it had been before. Viktor held her as long as he could before he had to leave for the airport. She’d gotten so big, and was constantly cooing and giggling and playing with anything she could get her hands on. Very different from the fussy and suffering baby he’d come home to and still saw in nightmares every few days. Saying goodbye for a week was harder than a quad loop.

Yuuri had made the difficult call to stay behind. He needed the practice, and he wanted to stay with Ryoko. Viktor supported that decision, it was what was best for Yuuri and Ryoko, but it didn’t stop him from missing Yuuri on the flight to Bratislava. At least he had Chris and Sasha waiting for him on the other end of the flight.

Yakov raised an eyebrow when he saw Viktor was alone, but he understood completely once Viktor explained. “Everything good with Ryoko?”

“Yes! I brought pictures, of course.” Viktor opened the folder on his phone and handed it to Yakov. “She had her four-month checkup last week, and the doctor says she’s completely recovered. She’s a little behind in some development, but catching up, and of course she is the cutest baby ever.”

“I think Yuri and Misha would disagree with you there, but no good father would ever say anything different,” Yakov said as he flipped through the pictures. “She is adorable.”

“What, you’re not disagreeing? What about your daughter?”

Yakov shook his head. “She was not a cute baby. I’d have fought anyone else who said it, but Lilia and I agreed that as babies go, Avrora was rather weird-looking. She grew out of it, thankfully.”

“But… you just said…”

“I’ve been called many things in my life, but a good father was never one of them.”

“Yuri and I disagree.”

“Yuri doesn’t. He’s not happy with me for letting Avrora go, even knowing that’s just how it was back then. Even before that, though, I was so focused on my skaters that I neglected my daughter. It was better with Lilia, since Avrora was a dancer, and you would never have noticed because you were one of the skaters I was so focused on. She’s forgiven me, but we’ll never be close.”

Viktor hugged Yakov. “You’re doing better at being a grandfather!”

“Yes, I am. One of the reasons Avrora’s forgiven me.”

 

When Viktor called home, he had a bunch of people with him. “Hello, Yuuri! Hello, Ryoko! I brought some friends to say hello!” One by one, he introduced various friends. There was no way Ryoko would remember them all, of course, but it was a good way to introduce a lot of people without it being too overwhelming. Most left after they’d had the chance to say hello, but Christophe stuck around.  
“Yuuri, Josef said that if I medal here he’ll let me take a week to go to Japan to meet Ryoko properly, if you and Viktor approve it.”

No hesitation, as Viktor had expected. “That would be awesome! Please medal. Will Masumi come with you?”

“If he medals, yes. Assuming, of course, that he’s welcome. I didn’t think there would be a problem, but always polite to check.”

“I look forward to seeing you two.” Yuuri looked over to Viktor. “Is Sasha going to come?”

“Yes. Rykov will come with her if you say it’s all right, but if that’s too many visitors or you don’t want to deal with stupid press questions…”

“If Sasha comes without Rykov, then we’re horrible people who are refusing to let him meet his niece. Stupid press questions either way, and I’d rather deal with the one that doesn’t require us to go back on everything we’ve ever said about we’re over it and Rykov is family now.”

“Fair enough, then!” Christophe waved to Yuuri and Ryoko and left.

“How sick are you of the question ‘Where’s Yuuri?’”

Viktor groaned and pretended to collapse onto the bed. “Very. It’s a good thing you’ll be at Worlds, I don’t know if I could take another competition of having to hear that.”

 

Skating kicked off with the ladies’ short program. Viktor slept through the first few groups – no one he knew was skating, and they started in the morning since there were thirty-six skaters to get through. When he got to the rink, a Lithuanian skater had the lead. Alena was the first skater whose name Viktor recognized, and he cheered as she did well. She was still in the lead heading into the final group. Viktor watched, not bothering to hide the grin, as Mila stayed rinkside and gave Sara a good luck kiss.

“That Yakov Feltsman’s skaters, so scandalous, wishing their opponents luck like that,” Christophe said. “You’d think he didn’t care if his skaters won or not.”

“I can’t wait to see what Georgi does today. I’m hoping he’ll come back and kick ass, but I’m worried.”

“He’ll be fine. Today, anyway. It’s tomorrow I’d be worried about, since ice dance goes before we do.” Chris offered Viktor a sympathetic pat. “Anya’s not even at the rink today.”

“That’s probably good.” Viktor turned his attention back to the ice, where Sara skated a beautiful program. Her 72 was had a good chance at putting her on top going into the free skate. Mila’s skating was gorgeous, like always, but her 70 wasn’t enough. That was all right. Mila still looked pleased with herself, and accepted Sara’s hug with the warmth it deserved. Emily had a couple mistakes that held her score down, and with neither Elodie nor Madlene getting out of the sixties, Mila was guaranteed top three. Raisa had plenty of room to join her, but ended up struggling and finishing sixth, with Alena seventh. Three of the top seven was still excellent for Russia, and Mila getting second to Sara was hardly fodder for “Yakov is slipping” talk. Viktor was quite pleased with the ladies’ standings.

With men up next, Christophe and Viktor left to go warm up. They were both in the final group of six, and Viktor barely cared about the first four groups. If anything exciting came out of them, he could always watch later. He made a note to watch Adriaan’s program – he was a young skater who was showing promise, and his score was excellent for how early he skated. The first program Viktor paid attention to live was Matthieu – he was curious about the French skater Yuri’s friend talked so badly about. He was good. Not good enough that Viktor considered him much of a threat, but far better than the French men’s skaters they’d been fielding the last few years. Emil was the last skater in the group before Viktor’s, and he finished it off strong, setting the final group a high bar to clear to stay final group at 82.

Lukas skated first, and he didn’t beat 80. Viktor was next. He didn’t get the height he’d have liked to on his quad flip, but he did get the rotations in and land on one foot. Good enough. This program, about losing someone close to him, had taken on a new significance after the scare with Ryoko. Thanks to Mari’s vigilance, she was never in any real danger of dying, but it was scary enough to leave an impression. It wasn’t going to be a world record, but it was good. Yakov nitpicked, but the 96 was Viktor’s best mark of the season. Michele’s 88 didn’t even get close, and Rykov’s 82 put him below Emil.

Georgi’s skating had an edge to it that made Viktor happy to see. He wasn’t giving up. Even though Rykov was easily beatable today, Georgi was going for everything he could. The performance was marred by a stumble out of his triple axel, but it was the kind of mistake that could happen to any skater. Even Yuuri. Christophe finally gave Viktor company in the 90s, finishing at 93.

“Viktor, there’s been a lot of talk about Yakov losing his touch. Of his current students, you’ve been with him the longest. Have you noticed a difference?”

“Yuri Plisetsky’s score from Nationals earlier this month would have him in seventh here, without a quad that I know he’ll be perfectly capable of by the time he competes as a senior. Mila’s in second, but Sara is a very strong competitor who outskated her today. I’m on top, Georgi’s in fourth after a serious mistake. Chris has been a strong competitor for years, and Michele’s had quite the breakthrough this year. So no. I have not noticed Yakov losing his touch at all.”

“Nothing to say about Yuuri’s performance recently…?”

Viktor slammed the press mask on his face before what he really felt could show. “Get on the ice after finding out that your baby daughter has been hospitalized and do even a single toe loop. Show me a step sequence with the flu – an illness keeping you from hugging your recently-hospitalized baby daughter. Then you can talk about Yuuri’s performance in Sochi and dropping out of Nationals. Until then, I think it was commendable of Yuuri to even step on the ice in Sochi. None of that was Yakov’s fault, and Yakov has been fighting for Yuuri just as hard as ever.”

“How is Ryoko doing now?”

“Much better! Back to stealing every heart she comes into contact with.”

 

Day 2 started later, for which Viktor was grateful. Part of him wanted to skip as much of ice dance as he could, but he felt he needed to go to help distract Georgi. Chris, understandably, would want to be there to watch Masumi and Jolanda, but Viktor could stay with Georgi outside. “Have you talked to her at all since Nationals?”

“No. I wrote her a letter apologizing for my idiocy in believing even for a second that she would cheat on me, but that was all I said, and she hasn’t reached out at all.” Georgi leaned forward, elbows on his knees as he stared off into the distance. “I didn’t want to do it before Europeans. Too much work to do to prove that I just had a down season last fall.”

“Fair enough!” Viktor looked closely at Georgi. “You do know it’s probably for the best to stay broken up and move on, right?” Off Georgi’s glare, he held up his hands. “This has nothing to do with soulmates. This is about a disagreement that there can’t be a good compromise on and that will make one of you two utterly miserable if no one changes their mind. Anya seemed pretty certain she wouldn’t.”

“I know, but… I love her. I know she loves me. Why can’t it be that easy?”

Viktor patted Georgi’s shoulder. “Because this is real life, not a fairy tale.”

Georgi snorted. “Says the guy who’s raising a princess with his fairy tale love now.”

“Hey, it hasn’t been just that easy for me and Yuuri! There’s been hard work and miscommunication and so far nothing’s come up that has been irreconcilable.” And, really, the biggest issues had probably already come up. Viktor couldn’t imagine what could happen after all this time to make them question whether they were better together than apart. Of course, saying that would be tempting fate, and Viktor knew better.

“I know, Viktor. I was joking. From the outside looking in, you and Yuuri have had a fairy tale romance. I’m close enough to know better, but it’s still kind of funny for you to be the one saying life’s not a fairy tale.” Georgi went back to staring off into the distance. “Maybe next year I could do some kind of fairy tale love story program.”

“Oh no. I can just hear Yakov’s head exploding now when you tell him.”

 

Solène and Jean-Augustin won the day, with Jolanda and Masumi second and Anya and Christov third. That seemed about right to Viktor. There was quite a bit of shuffling in the lower half of the men’s skate. Adriaan had a strong free skate, pushing him into the top ten as several people ahead of him failed to catch him – Matthieu among them. A mistake from Emil dropped him below Rykov.  
Being in the same rink as Anya didn’t seem to affect Georgi at all. If anything, it inspired him. He took off, skating amazingly. No hesitation, no bobbles. It wasn’t a perfect skate by any means, but the 179 seemed a little low to Viktor. It was enough, though, as Michele missed a quad salchow and dropped below Georgi. Assuming Viktor didn’t royally screw up, there would be two Feltsman skaters on the podium. Christophe’s 173 was enough to put him over Georgi overall.

Stammi Vicino didn’t quite have the same desperation here it had in Sochi, but still, Viktor had quite the emotional pool to draw on for his skate. Missing Yuuri, missing Ryoko… even the talk about Yakov losing his touch. He wasn’t seriously worried about it, since he likely only had a couple years left, but he could not imagine himself skating for any other coach. The elements flowed out of him without any serious mistakes, and it was only a mild surprise when Viktor realized he’d set the world record again by half a point.

After the medal ceremony, Viktor headed out to face the press. “Any silly questions about Yakov now?”

“Do you think Yuuri will take gold at Four Continents?”

Not about Yakov, exactly. Did they seriously expect him to say anything but yes? “He’s the best skater in the competition and has the best coach. There are excellent skaters competing against him, and there’s always the chance for someone to have a breakout skate, but yes, I expect Yuuri to win.”

“Even though Yakov will be distracted the week before the competition with the Youth Olympics?”

“It’s hardly the first time. Yuuri manages Nationals when he’s not sick with flu with Yakov distracted by Russian Nationals. We’ve all had competitions where Yakov has had to miss because he can’t be in two places at once.”

“Will you be there?”

“It will depend how Yuuri and Ryoko are doing. I’d like to be there, of course, but if Yuuri or I think Ryoko needs me more, I’ll stay behind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last three months or so have been kind of foggy. I'm still here, I'm still writing, it just seems like any time I sat down to work on THIS, nothing would come. It's March, things typically get better for me around this time, so we shall see what happens. Hopefully I'm back and can update at least somewhat regularly! (Next week is spring break, so that always helps.)


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of Europeans and lots of baby talk. Ryoko works magic but fails in one case.
> 
> Timeline: early February 2016

Day three of skating had the pairs short program, won by Lina and Tima with the French pair close on their heels, and the ladies’ free skate. Viktor went to watch that one with Georgi and Chris. He didn’t recognize any skaters until the third group, when Alena and a couple others around her level skated. Most of his friends were in the final group. Raisa and Emily both had good days, but not good enough to medal. Madlene held on for bronze, Mila silver, and Sara gold.

On day four, Viktor and Sasha joined Christophe to watch the ice dance. Georgi did not join them, going out shopping with Mila, Sara, Emil, and Michele instead. “Is Masumi still planning on retiring after Worlds?”

“Yes. He and Jolie are both ready to be done with this. We’re going to miss them, without their help it’s not likely we make the next Olympics team skating, but they’re really looking forward to it. Masumi’s already promised me that he’s choreographing my routines for next season, and Jolie has promised that she and Otto aren’t going back to Italy. He’s perfectly happy to stay in Switzerland with us.” Christophe winked. “I suspect it helps that Jolie’s going to start trying for a baby, and it’s just easier if they stay close.”

“Good luck! Babies are awesome.”

Christophe shrugged. "People keep telling me that, but I don't know. Masumi's hoping Ryoko will convince me."

"If she doesn't, then you are hopeless and it's a good thing Joli's the one who wants a kid instead of Masumi."

"Masumi wants one too, and the plan is shared custody. They're putting a lot of faith in Ryoko."

Jolanda and Masumi ended up with bronze, as Anya and Christov’s free skate pushed them ahead. It was a slight disappointment, but there was still the fight at Worlds to go out strong. They at least took it well. Lina and Tima took the pairs gold, making a highly successful competition for Russia with five medals including two golds.

 

Yuuri was at the Fukuoka airport to meet them, and Viktor ran straight into his arms. Viktor held on tight, ignoring the flashes and whistles. This felt so good, even with something missing. Eventually, Sasha kicked him. “Come on, you have a baby girl to get to and the rest of us are dying to meet her. You have an entire train ride to cuddle Yuuri. Get moving.”

Getting to Yu-Topia was odd. Of all the things Viktor had imagined, Ryoko not being there had not been among them. He looked to Yuuri for an explanation. “It’s a nice day. Mari probably forgot when we were getting back and is still out on a walk with her. She’s started being cranky when she wakes up, and going for a walk seems to help.”

“So should I start taking you for a walk first thing in the morning?” Viktor teased.

“Most days, you do… and I am less cranky about being awake by the time I get to the rink.” Yuuri pulled out his phone to text Mari. There was a quick response. “Mari and Ryoko went out for a walk and ran into one of Mari’s old school friends. She lost track of time and is on her way home now.”

It only took a few minutes before Mari was back. Viktor and Yuuri went outside to meet her. “I’m sorry for interrupting your chance to keep up with your friend,” Viktor said as he picked up Ryoko. “Hello, sweetheart, I missed you so much!” Ryoko giggled and reached out to Viktor’s hair. It was just out of her reach, so Viktor leaned down enough to let her grab it, earning a smile and cooing.

“Don’t worry about it. Yume was running late getting back to her family, too. We’ve got social media accounts, we’re gonna stay in contact now.” Mari pushed the stroller inside, with Viktor and Yuuri following her. “It was really good to see her. She was the first one to tell me that Kokei was bad news, and thrilled to hear that I ditched him instead of the other way around.”

As Viktor’s sister, Sasha claimed dibs on getting to hold Ryoko. “You are adorable!”

“Sasha, you have the Olympics coming up, don’t go getting baby fever,” Rykov teased.

“I know, and you don’t even want a kid, and Vitya’s not looking to have another one soon…” Sasha paused and looked to Viktor. “Are you?”

“Right now, I’m looking at next year, two years between our kids seems like a good idea,” Viktor said. “We haven’t really started serious discussions or anything.”

“You should probably get that figured out,” Chris said. “Who’s the mom?”

“If Yuuko retires like she says she plans to, we’ll ask her. If not, or if she says she doesn’t want to, then we’ll probably wait.”

Sasha looked at Rykov, who nodded. “If Yuuko says no, I’m thinking about taking some time off after the Olympics. I haven’t decided for sure yet, but a lot of gymnasts take a year off after competing in the Olympics. If Yuuko can get back on the ice after triplets, then I’m willing to bet I can get back on the bars and beam.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Yuuri promised.

Rykov backed away when Sasha tried to hand him Ryoko, much to everyone’s amusement. “I don’t want to drop her or hurt her or anything.”

“You won’t,” Sasha promised. “Come on, just hold her.”

Rykov continued backing away, so Christophe stepped in to rescue him. “If he doesn’t want to, can I?” Sasha handed him the baby, still pouting at her husband. Ryoko started babbling almost immediately, setting Chris grinning at how cute she was. “Okay, I’m convinced, babies are as cute as you and Jolie keep saying they are.”

“Good. You can learn.” Masumi came over to pet Ryoko’s hair. “Where’s Yuri, anyway? I thought he was staying with you guys so Ryoko could get used to him.”

“He’s got a competition in Slovenia in a couple days, and Yakov needed him to come back to Russia first. Youth Olympics don’t get anywhere near the publicity of the main Olympics, but still, he had a bunch of publicity stuff to do.”


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dragon Trophy and shit hits the fan with Lev.
> 
> Timeline: early February 2016
> 
> Warning: off-screen domestic violence, referenced infidelity

Yuri was glad to get out of Russia. The sponsorship money coming in from all the publicity he was doing was great, but between that, practice, and calling Hasetsu to talk to Ryoko, he was looking forward to the rest. At least no one was stupid enough to ask him about Yakov losing his touch. Between Viktor and Mila kicking ass at Europeans and Georgi overcoming adversity, all they needed was Yuuri to come back and kick ass at Four Continents. Which he would.

Yakov’s instructions were to take it easy here. Lower difficulties if he wanted to, don’t push. Don’t hurt yourself a week before the Olympics. That was all right. He’d be free to push himself as hard as he wanted, except for doing a quad in competition, next week. This week, he could relax, rest up from the annoying publicity, and hang out with Dariya.

The plan started out well. He met up with Dariya at the hotel, and the two of them played games on their phones until bedtime. The next morning, Yuri woke up with a strange feeling. Yes, he had the short program today, but the short program at a lower-level competition like this one was not one where he expected something huge to happen.

He got over to the rink early, where Yakov noticed his jitters. “What’s wrong, Yuri?”

“I don’t know." Yuri jiggled his foot a couple times and then checked his phone. "I have time, right? I can call Japan?”

“Dariya’s skating fifth, and you know the novice boys’ group won’t take that long. You can call if you want, but that’s something to consider.”

“I’m hoping this won’t take that long,” Yuri said, pulling out his phone. He called Yuuri. “Hey. Everything good there?”

Yuuri sounded confused to be hearing from Yuri. “Um, yes, things are good, getting ready for Four Continents and taking care of Ryoko. Why do you ask?”

Yuri shook his head. He wished he had an answer for that. “I dunno. It’s probably just dumb. Ryoko’s okay, you and the old man aren’t in some stupid fight, Phichit hasn’t had to break out the Hamsters for anything?”

“Ryoko’s great. I’d let you talk to her, but we just put her to bed…”

Yuri checked the time and cursed under his breath. He’d forgotten the time difference change. “I know, I’ll take your word for it that she’s good. Sorry about that.”

“It’s no big deal. But really, everything’s good, quit being me and just focus on skating.”

Yuri rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help the chuckle. “Okay. Tell everyone there I said hi.” He hung up and put his phone back in his pocket. Good as it was to know Ryoko was okay, that didn’t explain his feeling. At least he would get to watch Dariya. The improvement since she’d started working with a proper coach, even long distance, was great to see. 30 was a great score for novice girls. It held up for second on the day, to Yuri’s satisfaction.

There were only five boys in juniors, so Yuri didn’t have to wait long to skate. Both skaters before him, he could beat on the technical score alone, so he took it easy. It wasn’t exactly half-assed, but it wasn’t his best effort either. Yakov’s criticism was equally lackluster, so Yuri didn’t let himself worry about Yakov being mad at him for slacking. Even so, 75 was good enough to give him a huge lead. The last skater cut his lead to only thirty points.

He’d hoped to avoid the media by staying to watch the junior ladies. He only knew one of them at all, and Josiane wasn’t exactly a friend, so there would be no reason to expect him to stay for it. Sadly, there were a couple reporters tenacious enough to still be there when he left.

“Yuri, how’s Ryoko?”

Figured. Of course that's why they stayed. They were idiots. “Wrong Yuri. You want the older, Japanese one. The one who is not here.”

“Do you have any comments on the situation in Italy?”

“Nope.” He might once he knew what the situation in Italy was, but until then, best to keep his mouth shut. A situation in Italy could be some natural disaster he hadn’t heard about yet, another terrorist attack, drama with a skater, or something to do with Lev, and each of those required very different generically bland comments.

“Will you be giving your new half-sibling the same chance you gave Lorenzo?”

“What part of no comment do you not understand?” Yuri started walking away. New half-sibling? He needed to get out of there and find out what the hell. It was possible his mother had forgotten to tell him she and Boris were expecting another kid, but there was no reason to ask if Yuri was going to give that kid a chance. There was no way he’d hurt Natasha and Katya that way.

Which left Lev. Situation in Italy was now most likely a Lev thing. The other shoe finally dropping with Romana. If Romana was pregnant again, he just might go down to Italy and castrate Lev. He was no medical expert, but he remembered how weak Romana had looked when he went to meet Lorenzo. There was no way being pregnant now could be good for her. Of course, the other possibility wasn’t much better, although it was certainly perfectly in character for Lev.

 

He made it back to the hotel without the reporters trying to follow him. First step, text Yakov to let him know something big was happening. Second step, call Phichit. “What’s happening in Italy?”

“Hoo boy. You’re done skating, right? You have time?”

“Yeah.” Yuri got comfortable. It sounded like this would take a while.

“Right. Okay. Short version is Romana’s under arrest, Lev’s in the hospital, and Lorenzo’s with Romana’s parents and brother until everything’s sorted out.”

Yuri blinked. That was not what he'd expected to hear, although with the additional hint from the press, it wasn't hard to imagine what must have happened. “Would this have anything to do with a reporter asking me about a new half-sibling?”

Phichit laughed. “Damn. I was hoping between this being a lower-level competition and everyone being busy with the runup to the Youth Olympics you’d get left alone. Long version of the story, from what I’ve been able to piece together: I’m sorry to have to inform you about this, Yuri, but your father is a cheating bastard.”

“Only part of that I find hard to believe is that it means he convinced two women to sleep with him. I do not get how that keeps happening.”

“Yeah, I know. So this morning, this woman shows up at Romana’s house demanding to speak with Lev. Romana eavesdropped on the conversation and lost it when she heard that the other woman was pregnant and instead of denying the baby was his, Lev promised to pay her child support if she’d keep quiet about who the father was.”

“So not only is Lev a cheating bastard, he’s a stupid cheating bastard.” Oops pregnancies happened, but talking about hush payments when he knew his wife was in the house? No excuse. Lev sucked.

“Pretty much. Anyway, Romana lost it, started throwing things at Lev and calling him a bastard. Which, I think the authorities would have turned a blind eye to since she didn’t even try to hurt the other woman, except that she managed to hit Lev in the eye with a decorative beer stein. Which shattered, cutting his face to shreds, and knocked him out. He’s in the hospital while they try to fix the damage, but they can’t just ignore Romana assaulting him.”

“Justifiably!” Yuri couldn’t help wondering what would happen when his mom heard about this. “What’s up with the other woman?”

“Her name’s Olivia DiRusso, she’s a makeup artist, she’s eighteen…”

“Seriously?!” Only four years older than Yuri. It took a minute for Yuri to get the gagging under control. “I know Romana’s not that much older, but, still, what the fuck is wrong with Lev?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, Romana didn’t hurt her, and Olivia’s going to be staying at Romana’s house for a while. Dunno what’s going on there.”

“And you said Lorenzo’s got people taking care of him?” That was the most important thing. Lorenzo was a completely innocent victim in all this drama.

“Yeah, although I don’t know what’s gonna happen when Lev gets out of the hospital. If he wants custody…”

“Ugh. He shouldn’t get it, not after what he did to Mama and me. He’s kinda blown up the redeemed family man thing.” Yuri shuddered. “Okay, so as part of my publicity team, what do I tell the press tomorrow?”

“Check in with Isaak, but my advice would be to say that you only know what you’ve heard second or third-hand, and you’d rather not stir shit up based on that. I certainly wouldn’t blame you if you said something about how Lev abandoned you and your mother and you hope that’s taken into account when they decide what to do with Lorenzo until Romana can take back custody.”


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dragon Trophy Part 2. Yuri talks to Romana and gets to deal with idiocy in a completely different form.
> 
> Timeline: Feb 5-6, 2016

Isaak agreed with Phichit’s advice – Yuri was a bystander, no sense in getting himself involved. He had a competition to focus on. No, this one didn’t require much focus from him, but he didn’t have long enough before the Youth Olympics to lose focus now.

Dariya came over for video games. “Beka says there’s some shit going on that you’re gonna get asked about. You wanna talk, or you wanna kill zombies?”

Yuri sighed. “Kill zombies, but some idiot’s probably gonna remember the bullshit about you being my girlfriend and you might get asked. Lev finally showed his true colors and Romana didn’t handle it well. I’m gonna be trying my best not to talk about it, so feel free to tell the reporters to shove it and you don’t know anything. Which is true enough.”

“Got it.” Dariya flopped on the floor with her phone, joining Yuri in chilling. “You should probably not come tomorrow. Reporters won’t hassle you here, I don’t mind you missing my free skate if it means you not having to deal with idiots.”

“You sure? You’re in second, you’ll probably medal…” There wasn’t much worth dealing with stupid press for, but watching a friend win a medal might be.

“And if I get the gold, I’ll bring it over here for you to kiss. If not, I’m planning on winning a lot more, you can watch me then.”

“Heh. Fine. Except I’m not the ridiculous old man, I don’t care if it’s gold, any medal can come get a kiss.” Especially a private one like this, where no one could take pictures and start idiocy.

 

Yakov was a little surprised to hear Yuri was just going back to the hotel after his practice time, but understood when Yuri explained. He didn’t want to go wandering by himself, and going to watch the skating would expose him to reporters. Yuri pulled up some schoolwork and waited for news.

The first thing that came in was a phone call from Romana. “I’m sure you’ve seen the news, Yuri. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you when you tried to warn me about Lev.”

“At least you learned before he could do much to make Lorenzo like him. What’s happening with you?”

“For now, I’m out on bail. My lawyer expects that they’ll be lenient as long as I continue to cooperate and play up the now-single mother angle for why I shouldn’t be sent to jail. If I ask, will you send a statement for the custody battle? I’d rather my parents take Lorenzo than Lev, if someone needs to take him while I can’t be there.”

Yuri snorted. Romana had to ask? “Yeah, no problem, Lev doesn’t deserve custody. I can ask Mama, too, if she’s over her problem with you now that you and Lev are done.”

“I never understood that. She’s moved on, obviously she doesn’t want Lev back, why hate me?”

“You don’t hate Olivia?”

“No. I’ve had the chance to talk to her rationally, now, and the first she knew Lev had a wife and child is when she came to tell him she’s pregnant. She’s actually pretty nice. She and I are in the same boat, trying to raise kids who are better off without their father. I’ve invited her to come live with me once everything’s sorted out, whatever that ends up looking like. After all, our kids are siblings.”

Yuri couldn’t help the smirk. Now that there were going to be divorce proceedings and Romana wasn’t his stepmother anymore, she actually felt like one. “Sounds like a good idea. When’s Olivia’s kid due?”

“End of August. I know it’ll be hard for you, especially not knowing your schedule for next fall yet, but if you want to come out and meet him I’m sure Olivia wouldn’t mind. If nothing else, I’d like you to still be Lorenzo’s big brother, even though Lev’s gone.”

“Yeah, Lev being gone gives me more reason to come visit my little brother, not less. I can probably set something up with Yakov to come out between competitions for a couple days at least.”

 

Not long after he and Romana hung up, Dariya arrived. The silver medal was a welcome sight; the fury in her eyes, not so much. He took the medal to kiss and then handed it back. “What happened? Who stole gold?”

“It wasn’t stolen, Giuditta outskated me yesterday more than I beat her today. Ran into stupid press and now my parents are being stupid.” Dariya flopped dramatically on the bed. “Beka’s on the phone with them explaining just how stupid it is to believe that you would do a damn thing to me that they wouldn’t approve of, but they don’t want me to hang out with you anymore.”

“What.” Yuri shook his head. This made no sense. “Beka’s my best friend, you’re his little sister, which means you’re my little sister now.”

Dariya giggled, to Yuri’s relief. “Be a little awkward if I end up being your soulmate. Of course, having to deal with Beka if I am is gonna be awkward to begin with…”

“So if your parents don’t want you to be here, why are you? Thought you were planning on avoiding conflict so you might be able to go with Beka if he leaves Almaty to be with his soulmate.” As much as he wanted to hang out with his friend, she needed the better coaching she could get if she was allowed to go with Otabek.

Dariya shrugged. “I know, there’s no way to know until he’s eighteen and has his dream, but I think there’s a good chance Beka’s your soulmate. In which case, convincing them that you think of me as a sister and will look out for me gives me a better chance, because that’s two people there to protect me from the evil predator boys. Even if not, fuck them, friends are important.”

Not long after, Dariya got a text from her dad, informing her that she was to be back in their room by nine but she could spend until then with Yuri. Otabek sent a longer explanation – he’d convinced them that Yuri was trustworthy and a good person who was not going to cause problems. They still had doubts, but they would at least give Yuri a chance to prove himself.

 

When Yuri went to the rink for his competition, he was able to duck the press. He thought they might still be asleep. Who the genius who decided this should start at 9:30 was… Yuri shoved it out of his head. Like with the short program, he was going to take it easy here. No pushing, just skate it clean and claim his gold. No one even broke 100 before him, so Yuri was not at all worried about losing. He wasn’t going to lower jump difficulty, just treat it like a practice runthrough. Yakov didn’t give him too much trouble over it, even though his 143 was his lowest score of the season. “You’ll do better next week?”

“Duh. Then, I might actually have some competition.”


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Youth Olympics
> 
> Timeline: February 12-16th

Arriving in Lillehammer sucked. Almost immediately, Yuri was swarmed by reporters wanting to talk about Ryoko or Romana. “How many times do I have to tell you assholes? I am not talking about Ryoko. I haven’t seen her lately. I haven’t talked to Yakov about whether I’m going out there between this and Junior Worlds, but if I don’t, I’m going after since I’ll be done for the season. Romana, I feel bad for her, and I can understand the desire to throw something heavy at Lev’s face. For Lorenzo’s sake, I hope they don’t go too hard on her, he’s way better off with her than he’d be with Lev.”

“Do you think your mother, or grandfather, or Viktor and Yuuri, might take Lorenzo to keep him away from Lev?”

“No?” Yuri scowled at the reporter. “Romana’s parents had him while she was waiting for bail, and I’m assuming they’ll keep him for however long Romana needs them to. If they get hit by a meteor or something, her brother’s eighteen now, he can do it.”

“So you’d abandon your brother to Lev?”

“That’s not what I said,” Yuri snapped. God, reporters were dumb. “Lorenzo has family of his good parent right there who can look after him. He doesn’t need my family to step in.”

Once he got to his room, he gave it an hour and then called Phichit. “Let me guess, there are stories about me not giving a fuck about my brother and not wanting to protect him from Lev.”

“Yeah. I was gonna call you once I was done laughing at just how stupid they are. Sure, Romana’s no saint, but she’s a well-meaning parent with family who can step in and help. This is like saying Viktor’s trying to keep soulmates who want to be together apart.”

 

Skating started on the 13th with the pairs. With no real reason to care, Yuri skipped watching to warm up with his friends. Guang Hong, Kenjirou, and Richard were all super-excited to be here. “Hey. Kenjirou. Are the reporters bugging you about Ryoko?”

He nodded, but his face lit up in a huge grin. “Viktor gave me something I could tell them to get them to stop asking. We’ll see if it works.”

“What is it?” If it worked, Yuri was going to have to steal it. Get this stupidity stopped.

“He said I should describe Ryoko’s most recent diaper as of when I left. He even gave me a picture, which is kind of gross and weird but if it gets the point across…”

Okay. Yuri was not stealing that after all. No thank you. Changing a diaper was annoying, but then, he could ignore what he was looking at and deal. If he had to pay attention, he just might throw up. “That should be effective. Gross, though.”

Men’s skating did not start out very promising, as the first couple of skaters sucked it up badly. One of the skaters in the second group, Ethan Travers of America, did way better than Yuri had ever seen him do before – still not good enough to make Yuri feel threatened, but he became the first skater to break 60.

Denis kicked off the final group, and in his case, the nerves worked against him. His 57 was still leagues better than the person below him, but it meant he was not likely to be in the final group. Guang Hong did a great job, putting up a 73. Nothing Yuri couldn’t beat, but he couldn’t afford to slack off now, either. Klaus and Richard both had good days, especially Richard as he got above 70 as well, while a fall on a triple axel meant that Kenjirou ended up barely above Ethan.

Yuri started out strong with his triple axel, flying like the superhero he was representing. This being the Olympics, he didn’t hold back at all, pushing himself as hard as he felt like. It wasn’t quite the performance he’d put forth at Junior Nationals, but it was still going to be a nice high score. Sure enough – still over 80, and in first.

 

There wasn’t time to talk to reporters after the skating, as he had to get changed and get to the opening ceremonies. Russia had picked him to carry the flag, which was nice. Maybe in four years he’d get to do it again in the Olympics people actually watched the Opening Ceremonies of. After the parade of nations, Yuri found a nice spot to watch the rest of the ceremony from. Eventually, he was joined by Richard and Cécile. “Sorry to hear a lion can’t changes its spots, Yuri. Other than having to deal with annoying reporters, are you involved at all in that situation?”

Yuri shook his head. “Only in that Romana wants me to come visit once in a while to show Lorenzo and the other kid that having Lev as your sperm donor can be overcome and you don’t have to be a lying douchebag. Also, I’m going to kick her if she tries to do what Mama did and not tell the kids about Lev, so if they grow up to be someone Lev might be able to use, he won’t have a chance at fooling them.”

“Good idea. You gonna big brother them the way you do Natasha and Katya?”

“I dunno. Romana’s nice enough, but she’s not my mama, and I don’t even know Olivia at all. I’m not gonna abandon them, but I don’t really think it’ll be like Natasha and Katya.”

 

Yuri didn’t skate the next day, but Cécile did. He went over to watch her. The ladies skates were fun to watch, and Cécile’s 59 put her in second behind Japan’s Takako at 60, with America’s Mikayla and Japan’s Sumie right behind them at 58. The Russian skater, Diana, finished in a tie for fifth at 56.25 with a Chinese skater, Lin.

The day’s other competition was ice dance, which Yuri didn’t care anything about. He made sure to send a text to Chris wishing him a happy birthday and then settled in for what he hoped would be a nice, boring Valentine’s Day watching zombie movies with Cécile, Richard, Klaus, Guang Hong, Kenjirou, and Mikayla. It was a big enough group that no one should start any stupid rumors about any of them. With Guang Hong there, who was in a relationship with his soulmate already, they wouldn’t even throw darts to pick random couples.

Or so he’d thought. Yuri groaned when Phichit sent him the articles talking about Guang Hong “chaperoning” a date between Yuri and Cécile, Richard and Kenjirou, and Klaus and Mikayla.

 

When Yuri got to the rink to start warming up for the free skate, Richard headed his way. “Given your rink, why does everyone think you’re straight?”

“I have no idea. At least the stupid rumors have been out there about Cécile before, that’s probably why they went with her, but still. Everyone I’m attracted to is a guy, so they’re kinda dumb. If my soulmate’s a girl, that’ll be one thing, but if I end up without a soulmate and just dating random people who don’t have one or got rid of theirs? Probably stick to guys.”

“In all fairness, you haven’t exactly told the media anything about who you’re attracted to,” Kenjirou interrupted. “For good reasons, I know, they’re already so ridiculous about you and soulmates, and it’s no one’s business, but you can’t expect them to know things they haven’t been told.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Yuri grumbled. He kicked at the wall. “Still stupid.”

When the final group started, Yuri checked – there were a few people over 100, but no one over 120. Ethan started the group off with a 133 – this group was just that much better than the earlier skaters. Kenjirou had a really great day, getting up to 142. Klaus had a few mistakes that dropped him below Ethan, while Richard and Guang Hong had good days. Guang Hong had the lead, with Kenjirou right behind him. They would likely be silver and bronze medalists.

Yuri came out ready to fight. He was way above these other guys – only Guang Hong had beaten his 143 from last week, and that was with Yuri barely trying. This week, he was going to soar. His opening combination went very well, as did his Biellmann spin. Youth Olympics wasn’t the Olympics, but a gold medal here would still be awesome. When he skated over to the Kiss and Cry, he was fully confident he’d gotten it. He was right, with a score of 153 for a combined 233.

“When are you leaving for Four Continents?”

“I don’t know if I am. If you’re drawn for the mixed NOC competition, I’m going to stay with you. Lilia and Minako will go with Yuuri to Taipei. If you’re not drawn, then I’ll take you to Taipei with me, and you can go to Hasetsu from there.”

“You should go to Taipei. I’ll be okay here. I really don’t think Lev’s gonna cause trouble in the Olympic Village. It’ll feed stupid rumors, but I bet Cécile’s dad won’t mind keeping an eye on me and making sure Lev doesn’t get anywhere close.”  
“If Cécile is drawn, and they don’t go home early,” Yakov said. “If Alain is willing to look after a competitor – you and Cécile won’t be on the same team unless she has an extremely bad day tomorrow.”

 

Cécile did not have a bad day. She had an excellent day. Not enough to beat Takako, but she took silver, ahead of Mikayla for bronze. Immediately after the victory ceremony came the drawing for the team event. Kenjirou was chosen first, followed by Richard, and then Yuri breathed a sigh of relief when Guang Hong was chosen as the last skater from his group to be assigned. He and Yakov could go to Taipei.


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four Continents: Prelude. The vultures descend.

Viktor hadn’t made the final call about going to Four Continents until the day they would have to leave. Ryoko was doing so much better, and getting home from Taipei would be much easier. Yuuri left the decision up to Viktor, but didn’t hide how much he wanted Viktor with him when he had to face the press again. No one was surprised when Viktor got on the plane with Yuuri, Yuuko, Kenjirou, and the rest of Hasetsu going to support them.

Yuuri was braced for press attention the second he got out of security. To his surprise, the only one there to meet him was Yuri. “Where is everyone? Why are you here?”

“Lev’s disappeared. Yakov didn’t want to send me back to Russia on my own, so it just made sense. Yakov’s at the hotel, probably still screaming at the vultures who were hovering around here until Yakov caused such a ruckus that the whole group got thrown out of the airport.” Yuuri flinched. At least that explained where the media was, but now he was dreading the trip to the hotel. “Lilia texted to say that Yakov can keep shouting all day if he needs to, so we can go to the rink or something to wait them out if you’d rather do that.”

Yuuri thought it over. He was tired, he just wanted to find somewhere to rest, but would he be able to get meaningful rest until he’d gotten this over with? He had Viktor at his side, Yakov would stay to cut things off if they got too bad, so Yuuri shook his head. “Let’s just go deal with them. Hiding will just make it worse.”

 

Yuri and Viktor stayed as close to Yuuri as they could get when they got to the hotel, while the others scattered as quickly as they could. The press pounced immediately. “Yuuri! You’re here. Do you think you deserve to be, after your meltdown and skipping Nationals?”

“I skipped Nationals because of having the flu. My family will tell you how hard I tried to make it. Given that I have a strong track record of coming back strong from meltdowns, yes, I do think I deserve the chance to prove that I’m still one of Japan’s three best men’s skaters.”

“There are rumors going around that if you don’t medal here, you’ll be retiring to be a full-time parent. Is there any truth to them?”

Viktor squeezed Yuuri’s hand, and Yuuri squeezed back, clinging hard. “No.” After a brief hesitation, he decided not to elaborate on Japan’s condition that if he didn’t medal, he’d withdraw from Worlds.   
“I haven’t started to think seriously about retiring yet. I’m only twenty-three. Barring injury, I should still have a few good years ahead of me.”

“What if your daughter takes ill again? She’s been sick a great deal, hasn’t she?”

“Her doctor is not concerned about long-term health effects. Babies get sick.” Yuuri struggled to find the words to explain without making it sound like he didn’t care about Ryoko.

Viktor noticed and jumped in. “If there are long-term issues that mean Ryoko needs one of us with her all the time, it will be me. I’m twenty-seven. I’d like to make PyeongChang, but there’s a good chance that my body will just not hold up to training that long.”

“Yes, but you’re…” Viktor raised an eyebrow, waiting for the reporter to finish her sentence. “Well, you know, Yuuri’s just more…” She trailed off again as Yuri let out a snort. “Yuri? What’s wrong?”

“You guys are so dumb. Haven’t you seen his poodle? You think he’s gonna do any less for his _kid_? If Viktor decides to be a full-time dad, he’s gonna be great at it.”

“Which you would know well, of course,” another reporter chimed in. Yuri’s amusement vanished into his usual scowl.

“It’s different with a child than a brother or a soulmate, but yes, Yuri and I both know well that Viktor is a devoted caretaker when he has reason to be,” Yuuri said.

“How is Ryoko doing?”

Normally, Yuuri would hate the question, but right now, it was much better than dealing with any of the rest of it. Japan’s lack of faith in him, Viktor’s retirement, the possibility that Ryoko might be constantly ill… “She is doing very well. No sign of illness, and her doctor is thrilled with her development. Viktor and I brought pictures to give Phichit, so you should expect to see those online in the next few days.”

 

It didn’t take days. Yuuri and Viktor had barely settled in before Phichit was knocking at the door. “I hear there are new pictures?”

“Of course.” Yuuri handed Phichit his phone. “How bad a father are they making me out to be?”

“My personal favorite is the idiot saying that if you make Viktor look good as a parent, no wonder you have no problem with skipping out on her.” Phichit flipped through the pictures, occasionally stopping to make happy cooing noises at the cute baby. “Don’t worry, Hamsters are out, and even the Angels are backing us up on this one. For the wrong reasons, they’re saying you two are great dads for Yuri, but still.”

 

Dinner was a fun, raucous party that let Yuuri forget all his problems for a couple hours. Yuri had taken off as soon as he was done scowling at reporters to find Otabek, and now he, Guang Hong, and Isabella were listening in bewildered silence as Leo, JJ, and Otabek talked bands. Paul had come to watch Skye, and they’d made the call. “I’m not coming back, and Skye’s leaving after Worlds. Next four years we’ll be doing the college thing.”

“We’re going to miss the two of you a lot. Ladies skating is losing two of their best in the same year, which kind of sucks,” Viktor said. “What are you going to study?”

“Me, I don’t know. I’ve had all this time to figure something out, and I haven’t yet. So my first year I’m just gonna take a bunch of stuff and see if anything sticks. Fallback plan for if I can’t find something better is to get a communications degree and get into journalism. Don’t hate me.”

“Don’t ask stupid questions and we won’t,” Yuuri teased. “What about Skye?”

“She wants to teach art. In school, give private lessons, whatever. She’ll be great at it.”

 

Back at the hotel, Yuuri didn’t have to say a word before Viktor was holding him and he was holding the green dragon. “I know you hate the thought of me retiring, but it is going to happen in the next few years. I plan to stay as long as I can still skate at our level, but I’m going to have to leave before you’re ready to go too.”

“I know. And it is good to know that you’d make that sacrifice without a single hesitation or regret if Ryoko needed you to. Have you thought at all about what you want to do?”

Viktor shrugged. “Not seriously. I want to stay close to skating as long as you’re in it, even if that means I delay my real post-skating career until you’re ready to retire too and just be a dad and a fan. I figure when you start to think about retirement, that’s when we start seriously thinking and talking about what happens next. Stay in Russia or go to Japan, what we want to do, there are all kinds of important decisions to make, but they can wait.”

“Fair enough. What if Ryoko is…?”

“Then we do what we can to take care of her and make sure she gets the support she needs to chase her dreams, whatever those end up being. Same as if she’s perfectly healthy. We support each other through watching her deal with it.” Viktor kissed his forehead. “Until we know something more than speculation, we go out there and skate.”

 

At practice, Yakov had a lot of criticism for him, but no major complaints about Yuuri not looking good. He felt good, too. If he could skate like this in the competition, he should have no trouble getting a medal.

He’d have a while to wait, as everyone but the men went on the first day. They skipped ice dance, but Yuuri and Viktor went to watch the ladies, of course. At the start of the final group, Canada’s Cassie was on top with a highly respectable 62. Japan’s ladies finished the day with Iona second, Yuuko third, and Kei fourth. Skye was on top, four points ahead of Iona and eight ahead of Kei. Cathy had a slightly disappointing day, finishing sixth behind Cassie. In pairs, Salomat and Stas finished the day in fourth, which they considered a great finish.


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four Continents. Yuuri tries to put an end to the rumors about "Yakov's lost his edge."

Men’s short program would be after the free dance. Kenjirou was skating in the second group, and it showed that this was his first senior international competition. He did all right, but a fall on a triple loop put him in third after his group. Sachio struggled a bit as well, finishing two points behind Seung Gil. On the other hand, Phichit had a great skate, and his 86 was a huge lead over Liao Su and Seung Gil. He was in the lead when Yuuri’s group headed out to warm up.

Otabek started things out well, but Yuuri had to smile when he didn’t beat Phichit. If he could just hold it together, Phichit would be with him in the final group for the free skate. Bin beat Phichit, but Leo didn’t, meaning that Otabek would be in the final group again as well.

Yuuri was skating next to last. Viktor gave him a big hug as he walked out. “You’re going to do great. You’ve got this. Go put the final nail in the coffin of the rumors of Yakov’s decline.”

With that in his head, Yuuri had something huge to skate for. Dancing as a ninja was fun, and a good way to warm up and prepare for his jumps. The quad toe loop-triple loop combo went smoothly, and he felt great as he got into the second half of the program. He landed his triple axel smoothly, and the triple Lutz was excellent. Yakov had plenty to say, but Yuuri could feel the satisfaction radiating from him. Yuuri’s 97 catapulted him to the top of the standings, well above second-place Bin’s 92, and with only JJ left to skate Yuuri would be in good position for the free skate. JJ’s 89 was good enough for third.

“You did well,” the media greeted Yuuri with. The positivity didn’t last long. “You did well in the short program at the Finals, too. How do you plan to avoid crashing in the free skate?”

Viktor dropped Yuuri’s hand to put an arm around him. Yuuri leaned into him, drawing on that strength. “Well, I’m planning on not getting a call from my mom telling me that Ryoko’s in the hospital. I don’t understand what’s so complicated here. I skated poorly in Sochi because I was distraught and my mind was in Fukuoka with my daughter. As that will not be the case here, I expect to skate up to my usual standards.”

“Does Yakov share your optimism?”

“If he didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. Yakov fought hard to get me this chance despite my meltdown and illness that meant I missed Nationals. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t believe I could compete at the level expected of his skaters.”

 

Men didn’t skate on the third day, which gave Yuuri an entire day to worry. Despite what he’d told the media, he was very much concerned that his head would mess him up and drop him out of the medals. He could skate the program. He had the skill and the difficulty. The confidence, on the other hand, that was lacking.

The thing that helped most was a video call home. Ryoko had a big smile for him and Viktor. “Da!”

“Hello, Ryoko!” Yuuri waved to her and returned the smile. “I miss you! How are you doing?”

Ryoko cooed back. Mari “translated” it to, “She’s doing great. Not even sniffles. We had a bit of excitement this morning, she very nearly rolled herself over.”

“Wow!” Viktor waved to Ryoko. “You are getting so strong, Ryoko! You look so happy. We’ll be back soon, do you think you can hold off on rolling over until we’re there?”

“I’m not going to stop her,” Mari said. “Don’t even try to make me.”

“We know,” Yuuri said. “We’ve just missed so much… maybe next time, we should aim for an April baby.”

“June might be better,” Viktor mused. “That way bringing them home at six months would be December, when we have a bit of a break after the Grand Prix and can slack off a bit in getting ready for Nationals. Assuming I’m still skating, of course. If I’ve retired by then, July for a New Year’s homecoming might be better because then we can be there until Four Continents.”

“Well, you’ve got time to think about it, figure that out when you figure out who the mom is going to be. I’m going to start working on mine once skating’s done for the season, if that matters to you.”

 

Viktor and Yuuri went to watch the pairs skate mostly to distract Yuuri, but also because Yuri wanted to go watch Salomat and Stas. They had a good day, ending up in fourth with a new personal best.   
The ladies’ skates were fun to watch, as usual. Tahlia was in first going into the final group, after an unusually poor skate by China’s Ling. Cathy struggled as well, falling awkwardly on a triple Lutz that left her a little rattled through the rest of her program. Cassie had a good skate, putting her on top, and a couple minor mistakes meant that Kei looked like she would not be getting a medal this year. Yuuko took full advantage of that, skating a clean program that put her well in the lead and guaranteed her a medal. Iona had some big mistakes that ended up dropping her out of the medals, and then Skye put forth an amazing skate to win gold. Second, third, and fifth was a good result for Japan, even though they had hoped for better.

 

Yuuri didn’t sleep well that night, despite Viktor’s best efforts and the ninja sheep for extra cuddles. Still, when he got to the rink, he had a good feeling about the day. He had something to prove that he could focus on, and skating to tell the world that yes, he was a great skater, and yes, Yakov Feltsman was the best coach in the world, that would be easy.

Kenjirou was the first of Yuuri’s friends to skate, and he did very well. He had the lead halfway through the competition. Clarien took that from him at the beginning of the second group. Leo had a couple mistakes that dropped him down in the standings, but Seung Gil had a great day. Phichit was super excited about that as the final group took the ice for warmups.

Otabek skated first, and although he was good, he wasn’t good enough to beat Seung Gil. Phichit’s skate was the best Yuuri had ever seen from him, and his score was equally huge at 181. Neither Jude nor JJ could beat it, and Yuuri threw his arms around Phichit when he realized that meant his best friend was getting a medal. “I’m so happy for you!”

Phichit hugged back. “Thanks! We are going to have a great podium. Get focused, I don’t want you to miss because of me.”

Yuuri pulled himself together as Viktor and Yakov walked him out to the rink. Bin’s score was enough to take a lead over Phichit, but an overall score of 283 was easily beatable if Yuuri could just skate well. It started off much better than the Grand Prix Finals with his two big opening combos both going well. His spins and dancing were both great, and when he landed his last jump, a quad toe loop, he couldn’t stop the triumphant scream.

Yakov had some minor criticism for him, but he finished early. “I don’t expect the JSF to contact us saying you should drop out of Worlds. I’m not expecting an apology either, but I think they owe you one.”

Yuuri had to agree, but that wasn’t important. He’d be skating at Worlds, which was. Also important, “There are quite a lot of people who owe you apologies as well. I don’t expect you’ll get them, either.”

“No, probably not, but it doesn’t matter. We’ve made the point.”

It was all Yuuri could do to keep from laughing when he got out to talk to the media and their first question was “Your score was the highest from anyone this season, Viktor included. You’re the first to break 300. Do you think Yakov is vindicated?”

“Yes, absolutely. My daughter’s illness, and the timing of when I learned how serious it was, he couldn’t have done anything about. Same thing with my flu that kept me out of Nationals. What Yakov could do something about was guiding me to be ready for this, to not give up on the season. I’ll let my score tell you how well he did that.”

“Yuuri, there are rumors floating around that if you hadn’t medaled here, you would be asked to withdraw from Worlds. Is there any truth to that?”

“The JSF was understandably concerned. That said, I’ve come back stronger from meltdowns before. They chose to place their faith in me, and I believe I’ve earned my place in Worlds.”

“Do you think Minami Kenjirou feels the same? He’s the alternate, he would have gotten to go if you didn’t.”

“Kenjirou is a rising star and I fully expect to compete against him at Worlds in the future. He’s also my friend, and he became Yuuko’s rinkmate because he’s a fan of me and he wanted to skate with Coach Nishigori. I know he wanted to go to Worlds this year, but I can’t believe he would want to see me not go.”

Morooka interrupted whatever the followup was. “Speaking of fans becoming friends, this was your first time to share the podium with Phichit, I believe. He was considered a bit of a long shot to get there. Were you surprised?”

“Not after seeing his free skate! As you said, he was a long shot, and JJ or Jude could have beaten him and no one would be surprised. I’ve known for years that Phichit and I would, eventually, be on a Four Continents podium together. I’m not sure where it came from, but Phichit’s skating was on a higher level than I’ve ever seen from him. I am extremely proud of him, and would like to congratulate him again on his amazing score and his medal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canonically, JJ probably beat Phichit at Four Continents along with Bin. With Yuuri skating, I had to pick one of them to drop if I wanted Phichit to get the bronze still, and Sunshine Hamster deserves his shiny medal. Sorry, JJ. <3


End file.
